[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
French doors open into a new family room, part of a major remodeling project at the 1926 Dutch Colonial home of Wade and Pam Hamby in St. Petersburg. Mike Miano of Sun Bay Builders is enlarging a breakfast room downstairs and a closet and study upstairs and creating a covered deck area and a pool. |
By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published April 20, 2002
Remodeling projects keep contractors busy, with businesses reporting no slowdown since Sept. 11.
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The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 have had virtually no negative effect on the home remodeling industry in the Tampa Bay area, local contractors say.
"I haven't seen any slowdown at all," said Mike Miano of Sun Bay Builders in St. Petersburg. "In the months after the attack the phone really kept ringing."
"There's been no drop for our business," said Ken LaDelfa of KEL Construction, also in St. Petersburg. "Everyone's still really busy. There may even be an increase."
The $167-billion-a-year remodeling industry has kept its head above water as the economy stumbled and the nation redirected its focus on the threat of terrorism. But there was a downturn nationally in remodeling in the second half of 2001, according to information gathered from 1,200 remodelers who participate in the National Association of Home Builders' Remodelers Index.
The majority of remodelers polled "anticipate some slowdown in the market," said Gopal Ahluwalia, vice president of research for the NAHB.
The U.S. Commerce Department, which keeps track of remodeling expenditures, is typically two quarters behind in reporting. Ahluwalia shares the belief of many economists that the recession is ready to bottom out, if it hasn't already, and that "as we recover, business will pick up."
Kermit Baker, executive director of the Joint Center on Housing at Harvard University, said that as "the economy emerges from recession no later than the second quarter of 2002, remodeling will grow at a rate of 2 percent to 3 percent for the year -- about the same as has been projected for the overall economy."
"Remodeling is a substantial part of the economy and is influenced by broader economic trends," Baker said.
A full 35 percent of the 1,200 remodelers in Ahluwalia's survey reported no change in business since Sept. 11. Twelve percent reported projects put on hold, and 28 percent said they had experienced a greater number of smaller or scaled-back projects.
In the long term, the remodeling industry likely will experience average annual growth of 5 percent after 2002, Ahluwalia said.
The effects of Sept. 11 have been felt to different degrees in different parts of the country.
In Houston, Dan Bawden, president of Legal Eagle Construction, said 2001 was a record year for his company and others in southern Texas and attributed the results to the need to repair damage caused by flooding and a hailstorm in early summer.
"In greater Houston, 50,000 roofs needed to be replaced after the hailstorm," he said.
[Times photo: Dirk Shadd]
This addition off the master bedroom of the Hambys’ home will add a study and closet. |
Business has been aided by an increase in kitchen and bath work, with these two rooms "getting bigger and fancier," Bawden said.
In the Midwest, Bill Owens, a remodeling contractor from Columbus, Ohio, said: "Some jobs were deferred after Sept. 11 but not abandoned. I had a job set up in October, but the person postponed it because he felt guilty spending money after the tragedy."
Still, consumers are concerned about the future, so Owens has found himself "doing more need-type jobs" -- bedrooms, bathrooms, replacement windows -- than discretionary jobs such as gourmet kitchens and media rooms, he said.
Sept. 11 "was really not a blip on the screen," said David Brown, vice president and co-owner with his brother, Paul, of Knothole Creations in Largo, custom cabinet manufacturers. About half their business comes from remodeling contractors and half is directly with clients, he said. At the time of the attacks, "People had projects going and couldn't stop: They'd torn their kitchen out, they've still got to get a kitchen." Since then he has seen no drop in volume or in the dollar amount clients are willing to spend. "Right now they're actually more willing to spend money on their homes. I can only think it's because home is security; they want to start doing stuff at home. Cocooning, nesting."
Several remodeling contractors attributed their strong business to low interest rates. "The majority, if not all, of our clients at this point are doing a refinancing" and taking out some of their equity to finance a remodeling project, said Miano of Sun Bay Builders. He does a lot of kitchen remodelings and home expansions, typically priced at $40,000 and up, "and I have not noticed any significant drop. Nothing. And I was worried! I've been building 22 years and I've never seen it like this."
Sharon Armstrong, of Armstrong's Kitchen & Bath Ideas in St. Petersburg, said her business was slow in November and December, "but it has definitely picked up and we're very busy." Like others, she said many of her clients are people who have decided to stay in existing homes rather than move and want to improve where they are.
LaDelfa noted another reason for increased business: the new statewide building code. The law was supposed to go into effect on Jan. 1, so there was a scramble at the end of the year to finish jobs or to sign contracts and get permits under the old codes, which were thought to require less costly materials and building methods than the new codes. When that effective date was changed to March 1, there was another rush at the end of February.
- Information from the Philadelphia Inquirer was used in this report.
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