Home Improvements - Consumers Spending Less

Home Improvements - Consumers Spending Less

 

The median price of new and existing homes dropped 10%, to $225,000, in the fourth quarter of 2006 over the same period a year before, according to the National Association of Home Builders.  The value of remodeling has been shrinking, too: A homeowner who finished a basement — a $57,000 job on average nationally — got back 79% at resale in 2006.  In 2005 the same job returned 90%, according to the 19th-annual Hanley-Wood's Cost Versus Value survey, published last fall.

 

Remodeling a bathroom with upscale products like stone countertops and a bidet cost $38,000 and returned 77% in 2006, down from 93% in 2005.

 

The diminishing returns have dampened spending on remodeling, which grew by 1.5%, to $168.7 billion, in the fourth quarter of 2006 over 2005, according to a report released in January by Harvard's Joint Center for Housing Studies.  In 2004 and 2005, quarterly increases were as high as 20%.

 

Many homeowners are choosing to "postpone or pass on major home improvements," says Nicholas Retsinas, the director of the center, and that is likely to continue until the housing market picks up.

 

What about you?  Thinking of a home improvement or remodeling project?  Wonder if you'll re-coup the investment?  Post your thoughts or comments here.