Jun 26 2008 12:53PM | Permalink | Email this | Comments (0) |
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A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the recent increase in home sales in Sacramento and wondered that would mean for remodeling. The answer? So far, not much. 

I recently talked to a large remodeler out there (one of our Market Leaders, in fact) and he said that the market remains very depressed out there. As for the increase in home sales, he said most of that is from homes at the low-end of the market being picked up by investors who think there are bargains to be had. Most of these buyers are looking to either hold the homes for a while and sell for a profit and/or rent them. He said buyers are getting into bidding wars for prime rental properties right now because of the boom in that market.

What's happening in Sacramento gives us an indication of what we can expect to see in other places as sales rebound, so it's an interesting test case even for those of you in other markets.

Hopefully, this increase in sales will eventually result in more remodeling investment as the new owners look to increase values. It hasn't happened so far, but that's too be expected. The only benefit I would think we'd see at this point would be psychological, with the increased sales prompting some fence-sitters to pull the trigger on remodeling projects. Unfortunately, the precipitous drop in prices probably will keep that from happening.