WASHINGTON – Metrostudy is forecasting widespread increases in home remodeling this year as the economy grows across the nation.
According to the company’s fourth quarter report, all of the nation’s 381 Metropolitan Statistical Areas are expected to see year-over-year growth in remodeling and replacement projects in 2015, with average growth of 4 percent.
“This trend mirrored the overall movement in home buying during the last two years, where purchasing in 2013 spiked off of previous depths, and 2014 cooled off of those spikes,” said Brad Hunter, chief economist of Metrostudy. “However, a job market that has begun to heat up and recent increases in consumer confidence support our expectation that 2015 will see stronger gains in remodeling activity, as well as full recovery by third quarter 2015.”
Metrostudy’s fourth quarter 2014 Residential Remodeling Index (RRI), their exclusive quarterly measure of the national level of remodeling activity in the housing market.
The 4Q14 national RRI registered a score of 97.2, up 3.1% year-over-year on a seasonally adjusted basis, which beat a revised 3Q14 year-over-year gain of 3.0%.
The RRI has now posted eleven consecutive quarters of positive year-over-year gains since the market bottomed out at the end of 2011.
Home improvement retailer, Home Depot, is hiring more than 80,000 seasonal workers for the spring selling season.