Pandemic Expected to Diminish 2020 Remodeling Spending in Top Metro Areas

According to projections released by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University, expenditures for home improvements to the owner-occupied housing stock are anticipated to decline in most of the nation’s largest metropolitan areas this year in response to the severe economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before the pandemic hit, nearly all of the 47 tracked metro areas were expected to see slowdowns in improvement spending through 2020. Abbe Will, Associate Project Director in the Remodeling Futures Program at the Center said, “With the pandemic exacerbating localized slowdowns in house prices, existing home sales, and homebuilding, many metros will see even more pronounced erosion of home renovation activity this year.” Will went onto say, that with the country still in the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is substantial uncertainty about how long the economic downturn will last and how quickly a recovery will take hold.