midwest housing
Decline in building means good news for remodeling industry
Some local companies sees an uptick in business as more people are staying in their homes.
Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Larry Buckley, Hometown Construction sub-contractor, works to remodel existing homes and buildings. With the declining real estate market, remodeling companies such as Hometown Construction are thriving. Staff photo by Annye DriscollWhen Dave Herlihy, owner of Floorco in Miamisburg, a flooring wholesaler, opened eight months ago, he didn't anticipate his membership to be largely remodelers.
"One thing I've recognized — I've been doing this 15 years — is when building is down, remodeling goes up," said Herlihy.
In fact, remodeling is unaffected, in some cases even benefiting in the Midwest from the real estate market crisis.
According to the June Remodeling Magazine, the latest Remodeling Market Index showed a slight increase in activity largely due to a jump in the Midwest from 41.1 to 44.1. Nationally, remodeling is slightly down.
Locally, for the past two to three months, Herlihy has heard remodelers say they're getting booked, but he also noted that although remodeling was bound to go up, it didn't go up as soon as expected.
When it went up, Herlihy saw an increase in business.
"What I'm seeing them say is they thought about building and chose not to," Herlihy added.
Tim Garrison, president of the Miami Valley National Association of the Remodeling Industry and owner of Dayton's Home Towne Construction, also has seen more business.
"Even before the housing downturn, remodeling was continually on the rise. I've never had a slow period throughout," he said.
The most common projects are kitchen, bath and professional office remodeling. Garrison thinks the remodeling industry is doing well because people are trying to stay in their homes and stay in homes closer to the city to avoid moving to a longer commute and because it's a better long-term investment than stock. "People just want to take good care of what they have," Garrison said.
Jack Kostak, owner of All-Seal Home Improvement, also thinks the cause of the increase in the remodeling industry is mostly from people choosing to stay in their homes. He also said that buyers unaffected by the economy are purchasing in equal or greater numbers.
"We have seen a very modest increase, not as much as what occurs normally when new construction is down, mostly because of the sluggish economy," said Kostak.
Unlike Herlihy, Garrison and Kostack, Carri Bordenkircher of Kitchen Solvers said business has been slow. The effect of the market on Kitchen Solvers has been larger projects instead of increased business often in the $20,000 to $50,000 range compared to the $5,000 to $15,000 range three or four years ago.
"What we've noticed is that people are spending a whole lot more in the kitchen than they used to, so they're doing projects that will keep them in the house," said Bordenkircher.
Bordenkircher also said the past year has been the worst in 11 years.
"We were expecting remodeling to be great when the housing market went down, but that just hasn't happened yet," she said.
On the other hand, Garrison said, "I get depressed when I hear how slow things are because in our industry, that is not the case."
Contact this reporter at clevingston@DaytonDailyNews.com.
