For renters in the city of Duluth, GA, much can be gleaned from the hard work the remodeling market puts forth. It is a difficult time for the entire country, but in small cities across the United States, places like Duluth are looking to their oldest industries for answers. If you are considering a move to Duluth, it is best to understand the job market you will be entering. Here is some background information on the remodeling market.
Two forces beset the remodeling market,
which according to some estimates crossed the $290 billion threshold in 2007, last year that impacted the remodeling markets in pockets around the country. In Michigan, Ohio and many parts of the industrial Midwest, remodeling has slowed down as a function because of an automobile industry downturn.
"It started about a year ago with the automotive-based economies where a significant amount of the economic base serves the auto industry," says Baker, who is also the chief economist for the American Institute of Architects. "The poster child is Detroit, but it is clearly beyond that area. In these places we are seeing a traditional slowdown in the economy: declines in jobs, declines in incomes, and a commensurate reduction in spending for home improvement projects."
The second force is a decline in the overall market for new and existing homes. Home sales activity, which has been breaking records for several years in a row, began to fall back from peak levels last year. At the end of 2005 and 2006, existing-home sales were tracking at an annualized pace of 7 million and 6.5 million units, respectively. According to the National Association Realtors, that pace has slowed to an annual rate of 5 million units for the month of November. This, in turn, has hurt house prices, which have leveled off, and even fallen in some markets. The house price reversal, Baker says, has dampened consumer confidence for home-improvement expenditures.
"The second wave just began unfolding in the second half of 2007, maybe even third quarter, and is a result of the weakening in the housing market, particularly in house prices in some of the key, overheated markets," notes Baker. "Households seeing their house prices decline or flatten did not have the equity to pull out to finance home improvements. But more fundamentally, these households, just got nervous about whether this was the right time to undertake a home improvement project, particularly an upper-end project."
The slower housing market has not only flattened out home-price appreciation which hurts consumer spending as a reverse "wealth effect" takes hold, it also directly impacts the pool of ready customers for professional home improvement services. There is a long-established direct link between existing-home sales and remodeling activity. Those buyers and sellers are top buyers of remodeling services. So as existing-home sales numbers level off to a more sustainable, long-term pace of activity, real demand recedes as well. The slowing housing market affects remodeling across a much broader geographic area than the industrial heartland.
"This is affecting big chunks of California and the Southwest, Phoenix, Las Vegas and virtually the entire state of Florida, particularly southern Florida," Baker explains. "And then you have the Northeast Seaboard from Boston all the way down to Washington D.C."
NAR data bears out the broader based geographic impact of a slower housing market. According to the NAR, median house prices fell 3.3 percent nationally from $219,000 in November of 2006 to $210,000 in November of 2007. Regionally during the same period, house prices fell 3.2 percent in the Northeast to $258,000, .5 percent in the Midwest $168,000, 2.5 percent in the South to $174,000, and a whopping 6.8 percent in the West to $325,800.
This lower house-price phenomenon "is really the flip-side of what drove the market through 2002, 2003, 2004 and even into 2005," says Baker. "There was a rapid run-up in home prices. Investing in your home seemed like a prudent thing to do. House prices were going up, so you could ride that wave up by improving the value of their home. Some people rode the wave up by trading up, but others did it with improvements to their current home. Now we are beginning to see the flip side of that with house prices flat or declining. Why make a major investment in your home when you are worried that it may be worth $20, $30 or $40,000 less mid-year."
So there you have it; Duluth, GA is a great place to rent an apartments, and with strong companies with good work ethics, it is place where aspiring job applicants can not only enjoy living but also learn the steps it takes to succeed.
