Is the home renovations industry starting to boom again?

This week we’d like to hear contractors reply to the question: “Is your phone starting to ring again?”  i.e., is the industry bouncing back after the recent lean years?

Those lean years were really a two-part thing: (1)  The recession that started in 2008-9 and (2) the introduction of the HST.

The feedback I have had recently is that, yes, things are beginning to boom again.

One veteran contractor told me this week that he gauges how the renovation industry is doing based on the lineups at Tim Horton’s between the hours of 7 and 8 each morning. Right now he says his local Timmies parking lot is loaded at that hour with contractor vehicles, ladders on board, loaded up with materials. Now this could be his Wiarton Willie prediction, but he could well be right.

Looking at a more scientific method, Stats Canada reported recent that Canadian municipalities issued building permits worth $7.0 billion dollars in April, up 10.5% from March. The advance in April was the fourth consecutive monthly increase.

Then I read that one of Canada‘s major online home improvement referral companies recently reached a milestone of 30,000 posted jobs, at a total estimated budget of nearly $1.5 billion and they noted the industry is showing signs of recovery.

Is all this activity because homeowners are reluctant or unable to sell their existing homes right now and are opting to make their current homes live up to their needs and expectations by doing home renovations? 

Whatever the answer is, there are billions of dollars of work out there for contractors in Canada right now. What do you think?

Email alec@carahs.org

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