Call you contractor: Now is best time to remodel
By Melissa Wirkus
The slowing housing
market has brought bad news for almost
ever home owner across the nation during
the past couple of months. But if you
are one of thousands of homeowners who
have been holding off on a renovation
or remodel, there is some very good news
for you.
Now that new home construction has slowed
dramatically, home building
and construction companies now have
a lot of free time on their hands to complete
smaller projects they may not have had
time for during the housing boom.
Pair this with a lower cost in lumber,
and now is the cheapest and most convenient
time to do that second-room addition you’ve
been dreaming about.
An October 12, 2006 article by Sara Schaefer
Munoz of The Wall Street Journal, “Finally,
the contractors will take your calls,”
looks into why doing a remodel or renovation
is a smart move right now.
“While the current housing slump
isn't cheering investors, it is making
remodeling a kitchen or bathroom or adding
an addition easier and cheaper. During
the booming real-estate
market of the past several years, people
wanting to remodel often found themselves
waiting months for contractors to take
on lower-ticket jobs -- if the contractors
would take them on at all. Now, sluggish
home-building demand is pushing down the
cost of construction materials (prices
for lumber are near their lowest level
in a decade) and spurring contractors
to take on smaller projects -- and sometimes
cut fees.”
Work that many contractors would have
passed on a year ago is now being taken
gladly, and at a cheaper cost too. Now
that home builders/contractors have less
big development projects to work on, they
are happy to take a job that may just
involve renovating an outdated kitchen.
“The new environment means that
homeowners are more likely to find contractors
willing to take on projects quickly. ‘Rather
than saying 'call me next spring,' they'll
be more likely to say 'I'll be over this
week to the talk about the project,'’
says Kermit Baker, a senior research fellow
at the Harvard Joint Center.”
The prices for supplies such as lumber
have also fallen in recent months as well.
When new-home construction
was at an all time high, we saw the prices
for lumber rise, because there was an
increase in demand.
“Meanwhile, prices of framing lumber
have fallen dramatically, says Shawn Church,
the editor of Random Lengths, an industry
newsletter based in Eugene, Ore. The composite
price per thousand board feet of framing
lumber was $274 this week, compared with
$375 a year earlier, according to data
from Random Lengths. Ken Simonson, the
chief economist for the Associated General
Contractors of America, a trade group
in Arlington, Va., says he expects to
see a roughly 10% drop in prices of gypsum
and construction plastics when government
price data are released later this month.”
The only concern that homeowners
have is that some of these contractors
are not going to be used to the small
details associated with minor home projects
as compared to constructing huge developments
of track homes.
“Scott Sevon is a custom builder
and remodeler in the Chicago area who
has recently taken on more remodeling
projects. He says he has made his staff
aware that remodeling ‘is a lot
more time and hand-holding and lot of
good communication skills.’ As one
way to demonstrate their responsiveness,
he gave all of his staff Blackberry e-mail
devices so clients can get in touch at
any time.”
It seems as though builders will adapt,
and homeowners will be happy with their
cheaper and more timely remodels and renovations.
