Business Courier – by Tom Demeropolis

Date: Monday, January 10, 2011, 12:53pm EST

Homes across the city should be seeing improvements, as Cincinnati has been tagged the No. 1 residential remodeling market in the country for 2011, according to Remodeling Magazine.

Using its Residential Remodeling Index, the magazine ranks the top 100 markets annually using variables such as household median income, household growth, median existing home prices, unemployment, existing home sales and total permits. In addition, the forecast looks at 66 demographic segments including level of affluence, age, urbanization and family status.

The index compares the current level of remodeling with 2007, the baseline year of highest registered activity both nationally and locally.

The index forecasts the Cincinnati regional remodeling market will be better by the third quarter of this year than its was at its peak, the first quarter of 2007.

With so much remodeling going on, the Home Builders Associations of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky are anticipating much greater participation in their joint Tour of Remodeled Homes scheduled to take place this fall.

“We are extremely encouraged that the Cincinnati remodeling market is projected to be the top performing market in the country this year. With this important segment on the rebound we are optimistic that performance of the single and multifamily segment will also begin to gain momentum over this next year,” Dan Dressman, executive director of the HBA of Greater Cincinnati, said in a news release.

Rounding out the top five markets expected to see people freshening up their kitchens and bathrooms include are Houston, Minneapolis, Dallas and Austin, Texas.

As for other Ohio cities, Columbus was ranked 10th, Dayton was ranked 51st and Cleveland was ranked 74th.