Jonathan Sweet

Jonathan Sweet is the editor in chief of Professional Remodeler. He has covered the construction industry for more than a decade, first as a business and homes reporter at a daily newspaper and then for several trade magazines including Qualified Remodeler, Design/Build Business, Concrete Contractor and Construction Pro. He's been a working journalist for nearly 20 years since taking his first professional journalism job covering high school sports at the age of 14. He can be contacted at Jonathan.Sweet@reedbusiness.com or follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/SweetEdit.

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Recent Posts

EPA Deadline for Lead Paint Comments One Week Away

Don't forget, you've got only one week left to get your comments into the EPA on the proposed changes to the lead paint rules.

More on this from my post last week.

'Cash for Caulkers' Offers Potential Boon for Remodelers

The New York Times today has more on the so-called "Cash for Caulkers" program (more officially known as Homestar).

It's a program that's been proposed by both venture capitalist John Doerr and former President Bill Clinton that would offer homeowners money for weatherization as part of another stimulus package. The program would give tax breaks to pay for upgrades and energy audits.

It's a great idea -- it creates business for remodelers, creates jobs and makes homes more efficient. People like to talk about building more energy efficient homes, but the reality is that even building every one of the 500,000 or so homes being built more efficiently will make only a tiny dent in energy usage compared t...Read More

Let the EPA Know What You Think About Lead Paint Rule Changes

The comment period is now open for the EPA's proposal to eliminate the opt-out provision from the new lead paint rule set to take effect next April.

You've got until Nov. 27 to let the government know how you feel about this proposed change. Guidelines for commenting can be found here from the EPA. NAHB has also put together a sample letter for its members than can be accessed from its site.

In case you haven't been following this closely, a review of what's going on:

Last year, the EPA announced new rules for renovation in pre-1978 homes. (Fo...Read More

Deutsche Bank: Home buyer tax credit mostly psychological

While the new home buyer tax credit helped boost sales in the third quarter of the year, its impact was mostly psychological and it stole from future sales, according to analysts.

The WSJ Development Blog on a recent report from Deutsche Bank:

Deutsche Bank estimates that the first-time home buyer tax credit worth up to $8,000 cost around $43,000 per home buyer, or around $15 billion for the estimated 350,000 home buyers who wouldn’t otherwise have purchased a home without the tax credit. The report estimates that just around 5% of all sales ...Read More

Multi-Link Monday: Recovery in Home Improvement

A round-up of the news and views around the Web today affecting the housing industry:

Online referral service ServiceMagic says its quarterly Home Remodeling and Repair Index shows homeowners are more confident about the value of their homes and that the company is seeing a "continued recovery" in the home improvement market.
Calculated Risk on the increasing evidence that we're looking at a jobless, or even worse, a "job-loss" recovery.
In an examp

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