The sun will finally shine again on the remodeling market in the first quarter of 2011 if the scholars at Harvard University’s Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies are correct. The center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) forecasts that spending on remodeling projects is expected to increase on an annual basis by the end of the year, and the LIRA points to growth accelerating to the double digit range in the first quarter of 2011.

The improvements that LIRA measures are not your smaller general maintenance jobs, rather, they are the larger kitchen and bath remodels and room additions mostly. These jobs are the bread and butter of the remodeling industry and are the areas researchers are looking at for any sign of a market turnaround.

“The recovery in home improvement activity appears to be moving beyond simple replacement projects and energy retrofits to broader remodels and upgrades” says Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies. This is exactly the direction the market needs to take for this segment of the economy to be on more solid ground.

Stay tuned folks to see if the fine folks at Harvard University are right.

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