ReNews -- Remodelors Council News - 10/20/2004 (Plain Text Version)

Doug Sutton, Sr. CGR, CAPS
Remodelors^TM Council Chair
Springfield, Illinois

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In this issue:
Congratulations to the Remodelors™ Council 2004 Award Winners
Missed the Fall Board Meeting? Here is Your Recap
President Bush Addresses NAHB Board in Ohio, on Housing Industry Concerns
Another Banner Year for CGR
RC News: RC Leaders Participate in HIRI Panel, Participate in National Aging in Place Week
Association Awards: Remodelor of the Month, Bryan Patchan Scholarship, Senior Awards Include CAPS
Industry News You Need to Know: Are You Marketing Your Entire Customer Base?, Etc
Construction News: OSHA Helps Builders Communicate With Hispanic Workers, Liability Issues Tops NAHB
Are You On Top of Your NAHB Member Benefits? See What's New

Industry News You Need to Know: Are You Marketing Your Entire Customer Base?, Etc

In This Section:

Are You Marketing Your Entire Potential Customer Base?
Remodeling Activity Continues to Advance

Are You Marketing Your Entire Potential Customer Base?

A woman’s home is her castle — and she’s frequently responsible for maintaining the drawbridge.

According to the results of a nationwide survey released by Sears, Roebuck and Company, single and married female home owners alike are actively involved with home maintenance, know a lot about it, and want to know more, particularly about engaging reliable home care professionals.

The Sears survey — “Her Home: How Women Homeowners View Home Maintenance” — found that 85% of women have been, are currently, or expect to be solely responsible for maintaining a home.

Women’s interest in home maintenance is not surprising given national trends in home ownership. According to the National Association of Realtors®, single women purchased one in five homes last year and the number of single women homebuyers has doubled in less than 15 years. Fannie Mae estimates that by 2010, female-headed households will total nearly 31 million — close to 28% of all households in the country.

It is an increasingly important issue for women, particularly with an aging population. Forty-nine percent of the female homeowners 50 and over who were surveyed said they are concerned that they won’t be able to keep their homes up in years to come.

(Em)Power Tools
Women today are playing a larger role in every phase of home maintenance than stereotypes of a male-dominated industry might suggest. Among married women, 53% said they are responsible for basic household maintenance and repair, either on their own or in conjunction with their spouse.

Sixty-nine percent of the women surveyed consider themselves somewhat or very handy when it comes to home maintenance and repair and 61% said they enjoy home maintenance and repair projects. Women’s interest in home maintenance is further illustrated by the fact that if given the choice of an hour of free advice from home repair pro Bob Vila or popular psychologist Dr. Phil, 63% of women would chose Vila.

While Many Women Turn to Professionals for Home Care Help, Questions Linger: Do Men Get More Respect, Better Deals than Women?
Service professionals such as electricians, plumbers, carpenters or appliance repair professionals play a critical role for many women home owners.

Among single female home owners surveyed, one-third said they always or often use outside professionals (that compares with 17% of single male home owners in a 2003 survey). Sixty-one percent of single women home owners use professional service providers at least sometimes. Eighty-eight percent of single women and 86% of married women have used a home repair professional at least once.

When it comes to hiring home repair professionals, married women home owners play a major role in every aspect of the process. Among married or cohabiting women, 91% said they are involved in the decision to repair something, either making that decision by themselves (28%) or jointly with their spouse/partner (63%). When it comes to hiring a professional, 82% either do so individually (27%) or jointly with their spouse/partner (55%). Once the pro has been hired, 81% said they tell the professional what to do, either individually (30%) or jointly with their spouse/partner (51%).

While women are involved in hiring repair pros, they are not fully comfortable in doing so — 55% feel it is important that they learn more about hiring and working with outside home repair professionals.

Their interest in improving this skill likely stems from trepidation — 94% of women are concerned about getting a fair price from pros. While most women say they are confident in their ability to hire a good professional, nearly two thirds (63%) say they are concerned they will be charged for more work than needs to be done. Further, 63% believe home repair professionals charge women more than men for the same service.

Reservations notwithstanding, Sears’ 2003 survey found that most home owners’ experiences with service professionals are positive. Sixty-two percent of home owners who’ve used outside professionals graded their last experience an “A”; another 23% rated it a “B.” In fact, women were significantly more likely to assign an "A" rating (65%) than were men (56%).

Remodeling Activity Continues to Advance

Home owner spending on improvements rose again for the period ending with the third quarter of 2004, according to the Remodeling Activity Indicator (RAI) devised by Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. Home owners spent an estimated $129.3 billion on home improvements and repairs over the past four quarters. Spending has increased 5.1% since the third quarter of 2003.

The Director of the Joint Center Nicolas P. Retsinas, remarked, “Job growth and low interest rates continue to facilitate homeowner spending on home improvements, and provide an opportunity to go forward with major remodeling projects.”

Kermit Baker, director of the Remodeling Futures Program of the Joint Center, said, “Manufacturers and distributors of home improvement products are reporting strong gains in recent months. Remodeling contractors are increasing overtime for their employees, so home improvement activity should accelerate in the months ahead”

Since the first release of the RAI in 1998, several changes occurred that encouraged a revision in the computation methodology. They include changes in the way remodeling projects are financed, re-benchmarking of the government’s remodeling data, and the introduction of new data sources related to remodeling activity.

While the RAI will continue to be regularly released by the Joint Center’s Remodeling Futures Program during the third week after each quarter’s closing, the result of the revisions produces an indicator that more closely correlates with historical C-50 data. More importantly, with the improved correlation comes an indicator that anticipates the pattern of the business cycle of the C-50 data, so upcoming turning points in improvement spending by homeowners are better predicted by the revised indicator. The next release date is Jan. 13.