Dive Brief:
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The remodeling industry is doing better — by 3.4% — than it was before the housing crisis slowed it down, according to a new measure by BuildZoom, an online marketplace that matches consumers with contractors.
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At the same time, the number of new home permits issued in the first quarter of the year was 60.7% below 2005 levels, the report said.
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BuildZoom estimated that the U.S. remodeling market does approximately $300 billion of business a year, making it nearly as large a sector as residential construction, which was valued at $340 billion in 2014.
Dive Insight:
Issi Romem, BuildZoom's chief economist, believes the remodeling sector is often "overlooked," and said it "provides a more evenly-distributed view of the economy that is more likely to represent conditions in the nation as a whole."
The BuildZoom estimation mirrored good second-quarter news from the National Association of Home Builders, which reported in July that the remodeling market was on the rebound.
NAHB’s Remodeling Market Index came in at 59 after slipping from 60 to 57 in the first quarter. A score of 50 or more indicates that more remodelers than not reported higher market activity than during the prior quarter.
That rebound, NAHB economist Paul Emrath wrote in a blog, “is consistent with other signs of strength in the housing industry, particularly new and existing home sales.”
Smaller remodeling jobs were more plentiful during the second quarter, the NAHB report noted, and the contractors’ backlog of jobs committed for the next three months remained steady — a good sign for the near future of the sector.