The Power is Now

AMERICANS WILL CUT DOWN ON HOME REMODELING PROJECTS BECAUSE OF CORONAVIRUS.

Homeownership Program

The impacts of the coronavirus pandemic continue to bruise every business sector, and livelihood of Americans, and the remodeling market has not been spared. The remodeling market was steadily growing for the past five years, and it was in 2020 that it was expected to shoot up higher than all the previous years.

Before the onset of Covid-19 in America, the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity had projected that the remodeling market would rise by 3.9% in 2020. But since the pandemic was reported in the US, the rate of projects in the remodeling market has significantly dropped with no hope to rise any time soon. The Harvard University Joint Center for Housing studies had also projected that expenditure on home remodelling would increase in 37 markets countrywide and was only expected to drop in nine metropolitan areas. But since the coronavirus pandemic was reported in the US, the story changed. An approximate of 24 metropolitan areas are expected to record a drop in home remodelling expenditure with about 15 other major cities expected to have an estimated increase of between only 1% and 3%.

In a recent report, Abbe Will, an associate project director in the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing studies declares that “With the pandemic exacerbating localized slowdowns in house prices, existing home sales, and home building, many metros will see even more pronounced erosion of home renovation activity this year.”

The economic crisis due to Covid-19 continues to get more severe as time goes on. The harsh economic conditions are leaving many businesses with less or no operations, and thus no income is generated to pay for expenses and wages to workers. The situation has seen many businesses, including in the construction industry, laying off most or, in some cases, all of their employees. Other businesses are temporarily closing down until the situation eases. For these reasons, many Americans have been left with no sources of income and therefore, cannot afford to undertake any remodeling projects at this time.

A recent survey by the National Association of Home builders released last month concludes that 96% of remodelling businesses complained that the coronavirus pandemic has led them to secure very few inquiries from households planning to undertake home remodelling projects. Other households were raising worries about possible transmission of the virus as remodelers came into their homes to complete the remodeling projects that were in progress before the outbreak. Therefore, many homeowners are preferring to temporarily pause the projects until further notice.

Thriving businesses

As most businesses in the real estate industry are continuing to count losses with the ongoing economic crisis, but there are some that this is their time to shine. As other businesses remain closed and others experiencing a shallow turn up of customers, stores that sell home improvement equipment are receiving an overwhelming number of customers. Some stores such as Lore’s stores are overloaded with so much to do, and recently they advertised that they were hiring for 30,000 positions in the retail stores countrywide.

Due to the overwhelming number of clients and transactions, the home improvement chain stores were facing several inconveniences. Some customers took it to social media to attack the stores for the inconveniences. A tweet by Lowe’s responding in response to a tweet by a customer complaining of being inconvenienced by having to transact at the retail stores via cash. The tweet responded that, “the unexpected and unforeseen technical issues” experienced on April 18. Other shoppers tweeted complaining of the long queues at the retail stores in a tweet that read, “After 30 minutes of waiting with at least 40 ahead of me, a manager finally came on the loudspeaker to say that they’re only accepting cash.”

Do-It-Yourself

In almost every situation, some win while others lose. The reason the home remodeling stores are winning it this time is that most homeowners have decided to adopt the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) system. Many households cannot afford to hire a remodeler with the current situation and so they choose to remodel their homes by themselves.

Remodeling your home by yourself is a brilliant and convenient way to solve your remodeling problem amid the coronavirus pandemic. You will only need to buy the required equipment, and labor provision will be on you. If you had never done this before, you could acquire a lot of knowhow from online platforms such as YouTube tutorials. You can also buy a remodeling manual book from any remodeling equipment dealers.

The DIY system has helped a lot of Americans to save the little they have left to cater to necessities such as food, medical care, and other supplies. If you have no disposable money right now and you cannot perform remodeling by yourself, you don’t have to force it since you could end up messing everything. Since these hard times are not meant to last forever, you can choose patience. Eventually, the virus will be gone, everything will go back to normalcy, people will get their jobs back, and the economy will thrive again. This time then, you can comfortably hire an experienced remodeler to carry out the project for you.

In case you need any professional guidance on how you can do the remodeling yourself, feel free to contact any of our VIP agents stationed all across the county. Additionally, we have a vast network of real estate professionals all across the country. To check the agent near you, visit our website at https://www.thepowerisnow.com/vipagentsservices/. You can also contact me directly for a referral if we do not have an agent in your area.  Stay up to date with current real estate news and housing developments, by visiting our blogs page at https://www.thepowerisnow.com/blog/  daily.   If you’d like to set an appointment and speak to me directly, use the following link, https://calendly.com/thepowerisnow/ericfrazier.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions of Eric Lawrence Frazier are his own and do not necessarily represent views of First Bank or any organization affiliated with Eric Lawrence Frazier or the Power Is Now Media Inc.  First Bank is an Equal Credit Opportunity Lender. Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA is also a Vice President and Mortgage Advisor with First Bank.  NMLS#461807 and a California Licensed Real Estate Broker DRE# 01143482. Email:  Eric.frazier@fbol.com.  Ph: 714- 475-8629.

 

Eric Lawrence Frazier MBA
President and CEO
The Power Is Now Media Inc.

 

Works cited;

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/04/18/lowes-outage-stores-reporting-technical-issues-registers/5160858002/
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/americans-will-cut-down-on-home-remodeling-projects-because-of-coronavirus-2020-05-01

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