It seems like just yesterday homeowners were eagerly lining up to secure home equity loans to transform their tiny drab 1970s kitchens into gleaming chef’s paradises or their yellow-tiled baths into spa-like retreats.
Not so anymore. Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies reports that spending on home improvement projects will continue to decline through 2009 and the beginning of next year.
Property owners spent $118.2 billion on remodeling and improvement projects in the first quarter, down from $133 billion in the first quarter of 2008.
“Weak home prices and decreased cost recovery for most types of remodeling projects … discourage owners from pursuing typical upper-end improvements,” Kermit Baker, director of the center’s Remodeling Futures Program, said in a statement.
Has America’s love affair with home makeovers ended? If so, you wouldn’t be able to tell from watching all of those HGTV shows.
Harvard’s researchers say low financing costs for remodeling projects and improving home sales in some markets are positive developments for the remodeling industry.
But I’m betting that people with little or no job security aren’t going to have much of an appetite for spending big bucks on state-of-the-art media rooms and fancy outdoor kitchens for fun entertaining.