MarketWatch reports that the growth in spending on home remodeling projects is expected to slow over the next year.
The annual gain in homeowner spending on home improvements and repairs is expected to drop from 6.3% during the current quarter to less than 1% by the second quarter of next year, according to the Leading Indicator for Remodeling Activity from the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
Others, however, argue that the slowdown in remodeling is already upon us. Smaller remodeling companies have been particularly hard hit by this trend, said Robert Dietz, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders.
Chris Herbert, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies, attributed the slowdown to a confluence of factors. “Declining home sales and homebuilding activity coupled with slower gains in permitting for improvement projects will put the brakes on remodeling growth over the coming year,” he said in the report.