GE Capital Retail Bank, which provides financial solutions to retailers to help grow their customer sales, announces Think Outside the Toolbox, a new business-building program for home improvement, HVAC, outdoor living and other home specialty industry contractors, business owners and customer facing personnel.
According to August 2012 data released by Harvard University, annual homeowner improvement spending will reach $128.9 billion by the first quarter of 2013.
Providing a positive signal for the housing market, the world’s largest home-improvement retailer, Home Depot Inc., reported a better-than-expected fiscal-third-quarter profit Tuesday and raised its outlook for the year.
Construction spending in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in July for the first time in four months as a plunge in home-improvement outlays overshadowed gains in homebuilding.
With home sales picking up and contractors seeing more positive business conditions in the future, remodeling activity in the U.S. is in a position to see accelerated growth by the end of this year and into 2013, according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University.