With the real estate market improving, but still messy and a glut of new homes still on the Atlanta Area market, new construction and general contacting have slowed to a near halt, but the need for home repair and remodeling have increased as of late. For the past couple years, most home owners have been watching the market, postponing any home improvements and even basic home repairs unless they are absolutely necessary. Even our handyman division has been progressively slower over the last 2 years. The simplest objective proof…all of us have seen less and less of our local handyman both in our neighborhood and when we’re at Home Depot or Lowes.
Now that houses are slowly starting to sell and values leveling out, there is some pent up demand for remodeling and home repair in the Atlanta Area. Our businesses are located in Marietta, East Cobb County, GA and it appears to be the same in the surround areas that we serve: Atlanta, Roswell, Dunwoody, Sandy Springs, Buckhead, Vinings, Smyrna, Powder Springs, Kennesaw, Woodstock and Alpharetta just to name a few. Of course, because of the greater age of the homes, downtown Atlanta, Midtown Atlanta, Decatur, Virginia Highlands, Inman Park, Morningside, Druid Hills, Emory and a number of other small boutique neighborhoods in central and east Atlanta are quickly filling up with dumpsters, tarps and other obvious signs of new remodeling projects again.
If you are a home owner in need of any sizable remodeling or home repair, this is actually likely to be your best time to get it done. Why?…because there is high competition keeping labor reasonable and commodity prices have already reached fever pitch in the past few months. Gas, asphalt shingles, plastics and rubber, as they are related to directly to oil), copper, steel…well, any metal just about, cement, etc. These items effect material costs in just about every trade, especially roofing, plumbing, electrical, hvac, foundations, driveways, water proofing, grading, shipping, etc.
The latest word, is that the “sovereign” government funds, large investment funds, wall street banks and main street banks are all holding a huge amount of there reserves in commodities. This is how materials got so high during the beginning of the last run-up. At the same time, our income is typically not going up, making the materials even more costly in relation. All that to say, there will be many home owners and investors in a year or two that look back and wish they had struck while the metal was hot and cost of construction was still tame. Of course, times are lean and many citizens just don’t have the funds or flexibility to move now…we’ve all been there, what can you do?
Talk about kitchen remodeling, I recently moved into a new house and kitchen remodeling was the first thing I did. Everything you’re saying lines up with my own kitchen remodeling and home improvement experiences. Even picking a handyman service can be tricky. I’ve seen prices as high as $75/hour for work like in your pictures, so way to go. Now that all the remodeling drama is past, I love my new place!
I really liked this post and love the web site. You describe design build and home remodeling very well. Throughout the home remodeling process, your remodeling contractor should be available to speak with you about any concerns you may have and help you along in the decision making processes.