With a large and growing group of 50-year-olds and a steady supply of houses almost as old, can a remodeling
boom be far behind?
A growing population of aging Americans plus a growing supply of homes almost as old could be a boom for
remodeling over the next decade, according to a Harvard University think tank study. What's more, as the
birthdays mount up, tens of millions of former do-it-yourselfers are becoming "do-it-for-mes" as they pay
professional contractors to handle the remodeling work.
With the aging of both the population and the housing stock, the study forecasts that spending on home
improvements and repairs should add as much as $6 billion per year between now and 2010 to a market already
pegged at $150 billion.