Will senior and baby boomer homeowners choose to remodel in 2010 rather than making a move?  A recently released report by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University shows that homeowner improvement spending is likely to reach a cyclical bottom in the current quarter and steadily increase through 2010 according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA).  The LIRA projects annual declines in home improvement spending will ease from the current rate of 12.0 percent to 3.1 percent in the third quarter of 2010.

“It appears we may be near the bottom of the current remodeling cycle,” says Nicolas P. Retsinas, director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies. “With signs of stabilization in the national economy, homeowners are once again planning home improvement projects.”