Although the housing market is improving slightly, numbers are still far from good and the chance this will change in the next year is very slim. Most homeowners are still trending toward improving their existing home rather than ?improving by moving? as was done in the past. Consumers are gaining confidence as is reflected in the Bloomberg Consumer Comfort Index which rose to its highest level since April of 2008 but they are still very familiar with how fragile the home market can be and are choosing to stay put. That being said, what improvements are they looking make?
There are 4 areas that are getting the most attention: curb appeal, lower maintenance, lower energy usage, and going green.
CURB APPEAL
With most homeowners realizing that they will be staying in their existing home for a very long time and not just the 3 to 5 years they may have thought when they originally purchased the home, they have become more conscious of how it looks every day when they pull in the driveway. Thus, improvements like landscaping, roofing, siding, painting and windows are high on their list. Although these items are not as sexy as a new kitchen or bathroom they can make a big difference to the appearance of the home in a very short time and have always proven to add immediate value to the home even in a down market.
LOWER MAINTENANCE
Similar to the general population, current homeowners are getting older and busier. The baby boomers are either retired, getting ready for retirement or wished they were retired. The younger ones usually need both husband and wife working and sometimes with more than one job. The amount of time left to putter around the house doing household maintenance has shrunk drastically. Also, no matter how charming we contractors think we are, if most people had their way, they would love to never have to call us again. Therefore, home owners are looking for ways to lower or even eliminate some of the items on their homes that require maintenance. Improvements they find that fill this need are permanent siding such as vinyl or fiber cement, vinyl fencing, composite decking, aluminum patio covers, tile roofing, artificial grass, and permanent exterior coatings. All of these products are replacing areas of the home that traditionally were accomplished with a wood product. Wood is a beautiful material but it requires constant costly painting, repair and replacement that most homeowners simply do not have the time, expertise or desire to accomplish.
LOWER ENERGY USAGE
Even if your house is free and clear, you still have to pay your property taxes and your energy bills. There are some states that have enacted laws to restrict how high your property taxes can go but there is nothing to stop the constant rise in energy costs. There is no expert on the planet that is predicting energy costs to go down in the long term. Therefore, the only thing a homeowner can do to protect themselves from this uncertainty, is make their home more energy efficient. The home improvement industry has been well aware of this trend and has developed many products to help homeowners with this issue. Most of these products have proven to be great investments because lowering energy usage wil lower the homeowner?s monthly bills thus paying for themselves. The improvements that fall into this category are Solar products such as solar water heating and solar electrical generation, energy efficient windows, Insulation, Insulated vinyl siding, efficient lighting (LED), tankless water heaters, heat reflective exterior coating, energy efficient heating and air systems with proper duck work, and caulking and sealing of the homes envelope. Every homeowner knows that they need these products but what holds most back is the lack of knowledge about what is available and just how efficient the new products are. Most local power companies now offer incentives for homeowners to make their homes more energy efficient. They range from home energy audits to rebates and low financing packages.
GOING GREEN
For a long time most people including home improvement contractors, looked at ?Going Green? as nothing more than a slogan. That time has passed, and the ?Green? movement is here to stay. Many States along with the Federal Government have passed new regulations that have built in requirements that will get more restrictive as time goes on to make it mandatory for building products to become ?Green?. A ?Green? product is one that is sustainable, recyclable, low maintenance, energy efficient in manufacturing, distribution and operation, in other words, a small carbon footprint. For most homeowners, building a complete ?Green? home is not practical or even possible. They have to take their existing structure and make it as ?Green? as they can with the resources they have. Some of the improvements that almost any homeowner can make are: energy efficient lighting, caulking and sealing leaks in the homes envelope, proper insulation, tankless water heater, energy efficient windows and doors, efficient heating and air systems with proper duct work, new insulated sidings, and heat reflective permanent exterior coatings. As with the section on ?Energy Efficiency?, most local power companies are currently offering incentives to homeowners to complete these types of improvements.
These 4 trends are all tied together and the products that fill the needs also overlap. The opportunities are there for both the home improvement contractor and the homeowner. Right now, a homeowner can take advantage of great values due the fact that most contractors are just coming out of one of the worst markets they have seen in a long time but that will not last. As the market improves, demand will increase as will prices. This makes this a great time for a homeowner to take advantage of lower prices and power company incentives for many of these improvements. For the contractor, as pointed out above the need is growing and as the economy improves the ability for homeowner to obtain these improvements will increase.
Stephen Kuhlke, President, Vinyl Designs Inc.
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