Home Improvement Industry Sees Continuing Rise in Customers reports Executive Kitchens

(EstateNewsWire.com, November 11, 2012 ) Melbourne, Australia- While neighborhood properties may be struggling, causing concern for those who own them under unfortunate financial circumstances, the home improvement industry is seeing a surge of business.

Remodeling distressed properties in order to make them more valuable is allowing those in the home improvement field to enjoy some upturn in overall revenue.

Across much of the United States, the growth of the home improvement spending has already taken hold. Many homeowners now have some disposable investment finances to justify home improvement spending. This spending will likely translating to a double-digit annualized gain during the first half of 2013, according to an index of remodeling activity released earlier this month by Harvard University’s Joint Center of Housing Studies.

What is pushing the sector is work done specifically to these distressed properties. The work is estimated by Harvard to total $10 billion last year alone.

Remodeling is expected to continue throughout the next year because the high number of distressed homes and properties is near daunting.

"You can think of it as deferred maintenance," said Kermit Baker, director of the center's Remodeling Futures Program. "You're looking at homes that have (had) very little done to them. That seems to be a big piece of the market."

That is not to say owners are not investing in home improvements. They are simply doing it on a smaller scale than in a boom economy.

Banks are reluctant to finance home projects that are large in scale. Thus, consumers’ remodeling plans tend to be smaller. Harvard’s center estimates 80% of improvements to the home improvements is done with cash or revolving lines of credit. The same types of purchasing are around 65% historically.

"It's harder to do that $100,000 kitchen remodel on a cash basis," Baker said. "We hear a lot about smaller, simpler projects. In kitchens, it is not the homeowner saying 'gut my kitchen.' It's them saying 'reface my cabinets' or 'put in new flooring.’”

"People felt uncomfortable about investing in their home if prices were declining, if they were nervous about whether they had a job in three to six months," Baker added. "Right now, I think people feel pretty confident that home prices are not going to start sinking again. They'll get it back when they sell it."

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