Home Improvement Prices, Industry Stock Trust, and Goverment Involvement All On The Rise
August 2016’s remodeling news recap explores steady yet alarming national price increases across the remodeling industry as well as increased investor trust in home improvement companies.
Will this investor trust affect future home improvement prices?
Also explored in this August round-up is a partnership between one US government agency and a home improvement superstore meant to help Louisiana homeowners in the wake of recent floods.
We’ll wrap things up with a Massachusetts law change that all home remodeling professionals MUST know about.
Table of Contents
- Home Remodeling Project Pricing Rises Across The Board In 2017
- Expert Investors Taking More Notice of Remodeling Industry Opportunities
- FEMA and Home Depot Team Up To Help Louisiana Flood Victims
- Massachusetts OCA Opens Contractor Payment Portal to Help Small Businesses
- Wrapping Up August 2017’s Remodeling Industry News
Home Remodeling Project Pricing Rises Across The Board In 2017
Each year, Remodeling.com releases a yearly Cost vs. Value report in an attempt to make remodeling prices easier to understand for homeowners. In the report, they compare regional costs of various remodeling projects like new gutters, bathroom renovations, and roof replacement. Quality of work is also considered in some of their studies.
Their graph (pictured above) is a little confusing, so we’ve added some Christmas-colored arrows to help you out…
The column on the left (green arrow) shows the average nation-wide cost per project. Match this with the blue bars to uncover the average cost. The column on the left (red arrow) shows the percentage increase since 2016’s Cost vs. Value report was released.
Take a look at “replace roofing.” According to this report, the average cost of roofing has jumped almost 3% in one year! 2.7%, to be exact. The average cost for a new residential roof comes in at $20,681.
Expert Investors Taking More Notice of Remodeling Industry Opportunities
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/08/23/traders-move-into-homebuilders-and-home-improvement-stocks.html
Disclaimer: we are simply reporting news and re-stating the opinions of experts. By no means should any words written on this page be construed as financial advice by Roof Hub, F&B Remodeling LLC, or any associated suppliers, distributors, partners, or otherwise. We’re expert roofers NOT expert investors, so please consult a licensed financial professional before making any investments.
CNBC’s “Fast Money” discussed market confidence in public home improvement companies.
Fast Money panelist Tim Seymour noted luxury home builder Toll Brother’s INC while panelists Steve Grasso and Brian Kelly mentioned affordable home builder KB Home and home improvement superstore giant Lowe’s as good opportunities moving forward
Regardless of the implications for investors on a bigger scale, what will this increased trust in remodeling stocks mean for medium-sized home remodeling companies?
With potentially more funding for big, public players like KB Home and Toll Brother’s, could investment confidence flow down to the local or regional levels?
Having better access to capital would sure make it easier for local roofers to do their part in developing new technologies that improve customer experience.
If you’re a home remodeling industry professional or even a homeowner researching companies, then it’s important to know the bigger players. So for your convenience, we’ve included bios of two remodeling companies mentioned above here:
Who is Toll Brothers?
[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”KB Home’s Company Details via CNBC”]”Toll Brothers, Inc. designs, builds, markets and arranges financing for detached and attached homes in luxury residential communities. The Company caters to move-up, empty nester, active-adult, age-qualified and second-home buyers in the United States (Traditional Home Building Product). The Company operates in two segments: traditional home building and urban infill. Within traditional home building, it operates in approximately five geographic segments around the United States: the North, consisting of Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York; the Mid-Atlantic, consisting of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia; the South, consisting of Florida, North Carolina and Texas; the West, consisting of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Washington, and California. It also builds and sells homes in urban infill markets through Toll Brothers City Living (City Living). As of October 31, 2015, it was operating in approximately 20 states.”[/pullquote]
Who is KB Home?
[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”Toll Brothers Inc Company Details via CNBC”]KB Home is a homebuilding company in the United States. The Company constructs and sells a range of new homes designed primarily for first-time, move-up and active adult homebuyers, including attached and detached single-family residential homes, townhomes and condominiums. Its segments include the West Coast, Southwest, Central and Southeast homebuilding segments, and financial services segment. Its homebuilding segments are engaged in the acquisition and development of land primarily for residential purposes. The financial services segment offers property and casualty insurance and, in certain instances, earthquake, flood and personal property insurance to its homebuyers in the same markets as its homebuilding segments, and also provides title services in various markets located within its Central and Southeast homebuilding segments. Its financial services operations also provide mortgage banking services, including residential consumer mortgage loan originations.[/pullquote]
FEMA and Home Depot Team Up To Help Louisiana Flood Victims
http://www.theadvocate.com/louisiana_flood_2016/article_6f71b398-6a44-11e6-917e-8b64a8c25a55.html?
CNN has reported that over 60,000 Louisiana homes (likely a conservative estimate) were damaged by 6,900,000,000+ gallons of water that flooded Louisiana over the course of just one week earlier this month. (Source)
Brad Kieserman, the Red Cross‘ vice president of disaster services operations and logistics went on record claiming that “this disaster is the worst to hit the United States since Superstorm Sandy, and we anticipate it will cost at least $30 million — a number which may grow as we learn more about the scope and magnitude of the devastation.”
Disaster-Striken Areas Must Be Careful of ‘Fake’ Contractors
When large-scale disasters strike, both real and fake ‘contractors’ from outside the damaged areas flood in to help rebuild…
Some do “help” but others have evil, ulterior motives; to take advantage of desperate families.
This “storm chasing” is a dark part of the remodeling industry and one Roof Hub will certainly NOT stand for, so it’s nice to see Home Depot open it’s doors to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
For three full days, FEMA and Home Depot experts were on hand to answer homeowner questions about how to restore their homes from August’s flooding and prepare their homes for the future, so when disaster strikes again they will be more prepared.
Massachusetts OCA Opens Contractor Payment Portal to Help Small Businesses
This assistance for Massachusetts contractors was made possible by “bill H 4022” that was signed by Governor Charlie Baker this past May. The Massachusetts Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation announced the changes earlier this month.
Local remodelers and smaller regional home improvement companies should be excited because time is money. Between doing project estimates, installing the jobs, and providing follow-up for homeowners, there’s very little time left in a small business owner’s day for administrative tasks..
Will Staying Compliant Become Easier For Local Contractors
This isn’t a massive announcement, but it’s a step in the right direction. As Massachusetts and other state governments make staying compliant with local laws easier for contractors, we expect more contractors will stay compliant! And if this happens, it’s a great benefit for homeowners!
The state agrees:
[pullquote align=”normal” cite=”John Chapman, Massachusetts State Undersecretary”]In the more than twenty years since this requirement became law, contractors haven’t been able to register online. I believe this was a contributing factor to the low compliance rates of the past… This portal, along with the ability to pay required fees by credit card, are significant steps toward reaching our goal of a fully compliant industry.[/pullquote]
Wrapping Up August 2017’s Remodeling Industry News
That’s all for August’s home remodeling news!
A few questions to think about with only a month left in Q3:
Will roofing prices continue to rise going into 2017?
Will installing a high quality new roof on your home become more difficult for the wallet or are these increases simply a flash in the pan?
Could recent investor and government focuses on the remodeling industry affect any of the pricing changes?
Will technology improvements make it easier or harder for contractors to conduct day-to-day business?
Only time will tell…
Let us know what you think by leaving a comment below!
And if you’re looking for roofing services in Massachusetts, learn more here!