The coming year is expected to be another robust one for residential renovations, according to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today projects homeowner spending on improvements and repairs will approach $340 billion in 2018, an increase of 7.5 percent from estimated 2017 spending.

“Steady gains in the broader economy, and in home sales and prices, are supporting growing demand for home improvements,” Chris Herbert, managing director of the center, said in a statement. “We expect the remodeling market will also get a boost this year from ongoing restoration efforts in many areas of the country impacted by last year’s record-setting natural disasters.”

“Despite continuing challenges of low for-sale housing inventories and contractor labor availability, 2018 could post the strongest gains for home remodeling in more than a decade,” Abbe Will, research associate in the Remodeling Futures Program at the center, said in a statement. “Annual growth rates have not exceeded 6.8 percent since early 2007, before the Great Recession hit.”