We recently took several laps around the Indiana State Fair Grounds buildings visiting with some new clients and gauging the optimism of the entrepreneurs in the home improvement industry. Things seem decidedly brighter this year and we have picked-up several clients recently that work in residential remodeling and refinishing. It makes some logical sense.
American’s seem to be stepping-up and spending more on home improvements for the first time since 2006 – providing some lift and some longer-term positivity. Forecasting firm HIS Global Insight is predicting an upturn of 3.3% in 2011 and an additional 5.7% increase in 2012. There was also a report last week that indicated confidence among builders of single-family homes is at its highest level since mid-2007.
“People are remodeling instead of moving,” according to David Crowe, chief economist at the National Association of Home Builders. Home improvements have gotten a lift from several trends, most notably due to the fact that consumers have a pent-up demand and that spending has been depressed for so long. Smaller projects seem to be fueling the trend – and, with some homeowners under-water on their mortgages – all is not uniformly rosy.
However, according to one owner of a California landscape and design firm, homes have “gone back to being a house again instead of an ATM…long term, people do think they will get a return on investment, but they are being realistic and realizing that’s a number of years off.” (Source Material: Wall Street Journal, 01/20/2012)
We invite you to take a look at some of our recent projects in the home improvement category …Fishersdoit.com, archbricktile.com, barbercabitnet.com.
For many businesses in this category, there is a “pent-up demand” when it comes to improving their websites as well. We are proud of what we have put together and our clients are pleased with the results and the increased traffic to their sites.