A NEW REPORT from the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University puts the remodeling industry in economic perspective: Americans spend about $150 billion a year on home improvement, accounting for about 2 percent of the annual gross domestic product.
Compilers of the study concluded that government estimates of the size of the industry are 25 percent to 30 percent lower than the actual size. Among other findings from the study:
Besides contributing to the economy, the remodeling industry preserves and enhances the nearly 120 million units of housing that make up the nation's $8 trillion investment in housing.
The median age of owner- and renter-occupied housing in the United States is approaching 30 years. Property owners spent more than $33 billion in 1995 on major replacements.
Also in 1995, consumers spent more than $35 million remodeling kitchens and bathrooms, along with structural changes or additions to other parts of the house. They also spent about $18 billion on such exterior alterations as detached garages, patios, fencing and swimming pools.
Trade-up buyers spend an average $5,000 on improvements immediately after buying a house; first-time buyers, lacking the equity, spend an average $1,500 in the first two years of owning a house.
Half of all homeowners undertake do-it-yourself projects, spending about $20 billion per year on materials.
Among professional remodelers, the top 100 in terms of payroll garner only 6.5 percent of all receipts collected by remodeling firms. Of the approximately 800,000 remodelers operating in the United States, an estimated 70 percent are self-employed individuals.
The study concluded that forces currently driving the remodeling market, including rising incomes, growing homeownership, and aging housing stock, will continue to strengthen the industry, with expected growth between 1995 and 2010 averaging 2 percent per year.
CO monitoring
A new product from Cincinnati-based Newtron Products, which produces air filters for residential and commercial use, makes monitoring your house for carbon monoxide more efficient.
Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless gas that can, at high levels, produce illness and even result in death. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends that every home have at least one CO detector.
Newtron's Watchdog products combine a CO monitoring unit with a furnace filter, so that instead of monitoring a specific area of the house, the unit monitors all the air that's circulating inside. When it detects CO buildup, it emits a piercing noise, like a smoke detector but louder, that is carried through the heating ducts to alert or awaken residents. The filters are permanent; instead of being replaced they can be cleaned.
Watchdog filter-monitors cost between $150 and $250, depending on the efficiency rating, and are available from heating contractors. Or you can check out the company's Web site at www.newtronproducts.com.
Ron Nodine is owner of American Renovator Inc., a Baltimore design-build remodeling firm, and past president of the Remodelors Council of the Home Builders Association of Maryland. Karol Menzie is a feature writer for The Sun.
If you have questions, tips or experiences to share about working on houses, e-mail Ron at hw@renovator.net or Karol at karol.menzie@baltsun.com. Or write c/o HOME WORK, The Sun, 501 N. Calvert St., Baltimore, Md. 21278. Questions of general interest will be answered in the column; comments, tips and experiences will be reported in occasional columns.
Pub Date: 3/31/99