BFRI shows 18 months of consecutive growth in home remodeling activity

The latest BuildFax Remodeling Index indicates that residential remodeling activity registered a year-over-year gain for the eighteenth-straight month, rising 15 percent year-over-year in April, according to a June 15 BuildFax release.

"April traditionally sets a baseline for the rest of the year in residential remodeling activity, and April 2011 is the best we've seen since the beginning of the index in April 2004," said Joe Emison, vice president of Research and Development at BuildFax. "The BFRI is indexed to start at 100 in April 2004, and here we are seven years later, after significant drops in housing value, and the index is almost 110. That means there were almost 10 percent more residential remodels in April 2011 than in April 2004. Given the relatively pessimistic economic news that we heard about April, including a slowing recovery, this is a nice surprise for the industry," he said, in the release.

In April, only the Midwest posted a year-over-year loss. The West was up 18 percent year-over-year; the Midwest was down 19 percent year-over-year; the Northeast was up5 percentyear-over-year; and the South was up 11 percentyear-over-year, according to the April 2011 BFRI.