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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NAHB Remodeling Index Improves Slightly, Still Bad

A remodeler I talked to last week at the Remodeling Show said, "Things are slowly getting less worse."

That sentiment seems to be echoed by those remodelers that make up NAHB's Remodeling Market Index. The quarterly indicator was up slightly for the third quarter from 39.8 to 38.1 -- still well below the 50 mark that indicates an even market. (Any number below 50 indicates that more remodelers say the market is getting worse than it is improving.) The RMI hasn't topped 50 since 2005.

The "future indicators" index was up to 38.7 from 34.2

Just like the consumer confidenc...Read More

Remodeling Show: It Could Have Been Worse

The headline says it all folks. That was the general feeling I got from talking to remodelers and exhibitors there. We all had such low expectations going in, that it ended up being just a little better.

There actually were people there, but not as many as past years. Getting around the show floor was definitely not a challenge. You could easily see everyone you wanted to talk to in just a day and that's with the Deck Expo included.

I tried to keep you updated on what was going on through Twitter, but in case you didn't follow me there, here are some of my impressions:

Interesting (and good) trend: Exhibitors were much more focused on how they can help remodelers with things like training programs and sales support than wi

Consumer Confidence Drops

Consumer confidence dropped this month for the second month in a row, according to The Conference Board.

The nearly six-point drop from 53.4 to 47.7 was steeper than most economists expected, but doesn't strike me as particularly surprising. All it shows is that people are paying a lot more attention to the unemployment numbers than to the recent run-up in the stock market. Clearly, the Wall Street recovery hasn't helped the rest of the country yet.

And that's bad news for remodelers, as you all know. Consumer confidence is pr...Read More

Follow my Twitter updates from the Remodeling Show

I'll be tweeting live from the Remodeling Show in Indianapolis starting Wednesday, so be sure to head over to www.twitter.com/SweetEdit, where I'll be giving you the latest updates on what I see.

Glimmer of Hope for Home Builders on Appraisals

There's some good news coming out of Washington today about the Home Valuation Code of Conduct, which regulates who can perform appraisals and has been blamed by NAHB, NAR and a host of others with creating artifically low home appraisals and impeding any housing recovery. (NAHB says 25 percent of builders are losing sales because of appraisals coming in below contract price.)

CNBC's Diana Olick is reporting today that the House Financial Services Committee has passed an amendment to the Consumer Financial Protection Agency Act that would put a sunset date on the code. The bill still has to be passed put of committee, then on to the f...Read More

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