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Annual gains in improvement and maintenance expenditures to owner-occupied homes are expected to decline sharply by the middle of next year, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released last week by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.
The LIRA projects year-over-year growth in homeowner remodeling and repair spending to shrink from 16.1 percent in 2022 to 6.5 percent by the third quarter of 2023.
“Housing and remodeling markets are undoubtedly slowing from the exceptionally high and unsustainable growth rates that followed in the wake of the pandemic-induced recession,” says Carlos Martín, Project Director of the Remodeling Futures Program at the Center. “Spending for home improvements will continue to face headwinds from declining home sales, rising interest rates, and the increasing costs of contractor labor and building materials.”
The Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) provides a short-term outlook of national home improvement and repair spending to owner-occupied homes.
Meanwhile, closer to home and in a now familiar pattern, Norfolk County Register of Deeds William P. O’Donnell reported that 3rd quarter (July-September 2022) Norfolk County recording statistics indicate residential and commercial sale prices continued to level off, while the number of notices to foreclose rose sharply.
In the 3rd quarter, there were 20 foreclosure deeds recorded as a result of mortgage foreclosures taking place in Norfolk County, two more than in the 3rd quarter of 2021. Alarmingly, there were 91 Notices to Foreclose, the first step in the foreclosure process, recorded in the 3rd quarter of 2022, up significantly from 30 in the 3rd quarter of 2021.
“The dramatic increase in the number of these notices is concerning. It indicates that more of our neighbors are facing financial challenges going forward,” said O’Donnell. “We will continue to track these numbers.”
In the broader market, during the recently concluded 3rd quarter of the 2022 calendar year, the average Norfolk County real estate sales price for both residential and commercial properties increased 11% to $1,107,041. Total residential and commercial real estate volume was $3.26 billion, a 13% decrease over the same period in 2021.
“The rise in interest rates has had an impact on so many levels, in regards to the statistics at the Norfolk Registry of Deeds,” said O’Donnell. “Total document volume for the last three months, July, August, and September (2022), is down significantly. One of the components of document volume, the number of deeds recorded, indicates a decrease in property sales.”
For the 3rd quarter of 2022, the number of land documents recorded, such as (deeds, mortgages, homesteads, mortgage discharges, etc.), was 32,496, a 33% decline from the 3rd quarter of 2021. The number of deeds, both commercial and residential, recorded was 4,642, a 21% decrease over the same time span last year.
