America’s home improvement boom appears to be over

Channel 3000 News/CNN ^ | May 23, 2023 | CNN Staff

[central_va]

Lowes and Home Depot are ChiCom store fronts.

[Mouton]

We upgraded our forever home over past six years. Now we do only emergency items I e our ceiling steps broke. Picked one up at lowes and observed we were one of few customers. Need a chimney repair but not leaking so will wait. I’ve noticed more ads for handyman services so perhaps the construction boom is slowing.

[Sequoyah101]

So you are one of the ones who brokered the crap we bought. I have a stack of remnants from a project stacked on a trailer, in the dry in the barn. 2x6s warped so bad you could use them for a roller coaster.

I waited nearly two years for prices to come somewhat back to earth but the quality is junk and prices are still too high for sheet goods. I couldn’t wait forever, I’m getting too old to wait too long.

[Sir Bangaz Cracka]

Quick trip North, up through Central Florida, on Sunday, shows massive new home construction projects when passing through St. Cloud, Kissimmee, Orlando, Clermont, Leesburg and The Villages. No signs of anything slowing down. Girl friend just moved to Leesburg, and bought a new home where Google Earth Pro map shows bare dirt, but now has a thousand new homes. Horton and Meritage are selling spec houses as fast as they are being built.

Born and raised in Florida. Never seen anything like it before. Son is in land development business in the Ft. Myers area on Gulf coast, and it’s the same there.

Recently took a trip through Stuart/Martin County (where Bongino lives), and after leaving i95 and heading East all along an established highway, even there they are infilling new homes on every vacant piece of land where a home could possibly be placed. Must have passed several hundred Porta Potties placed all along the highway in about a 5 mile stretch.

[Brian Griffin]

People often have dreadful taste.

They spend big bucks and get a dreary house. Then they want to sell it off.

Who would want to pay top dollar for a remodel that has to be redone?

[Brian Griffin]

I inherited my house here in Florida.

My mother bought a 100x250 lot for $8000 in 1978 and my uncle built a house on it.

I continue to live here because I have lots of stuff and my costs are low.

If I had to pay current prices, I’d never choose Florida.

[metmom]

My son is redoing his kitchen but NOT using big box store *quality* materials.

[Zuriel]

**local suburban Baltimore Home Depots are jam-packed, long lines at the registers.**

Well, if you are talking south, and southwest suburbs, you might well say DC suburbs. Which have an abundance of guvmint employees (and lobbyists). To my knowledge the guvmint work force isn’t suffering economically.

[bigfootbob]

I work in the industry. It depends on the project. I am running less appointments this year but not that much, 3 percent or so. I am selling more window upgrades to folks wanting to stop the heat loss/heat gain and save $$$ on energy costs. So far, I’m still seeing growth, it has slowed down except for higher end homes.

[metmom]

People often have dreadful taste. They spend big bucks and get a dreary house. Then they want to sell it off.

You are not just kidding.

When we were house shopping a few years ago the stuff we saw for interior decor was hideous

[Georgia Girl 2]

We are still working on our house. We still have to put the flooring down in the kitchen and living room, paint the kitchen cabinets, put new hardware on and install new appliances. We are using the stuff that’s on sale etc since were just fixing It up on the cheap to sell.

[woodbutcher1963]

I remodeled my last kitchen but did not replace the cabinet boxes. I bought all new doors, drawer fronts and drawer boxes from a company out of Arkansas. They LTL shipped them to my house.

I had to stain and finish the doors to the same color as the sides of the existing cabinets. I reused the same hinges and drawer slides. I bought all new cabinet knobs.
I did this 12 years ago. It cost about $2500 total. Replacing all the cabinets would have been $14K or more.

[Myrddin]

My trips to Lowe's/Home Depot are primarily maintenance/replacement. We just replaced a failing washing machine. The main bath toilet was "ghost flushing". It's a 2013 vintage Kohler. The simple fix would be to purchase a replacement tank. It wasn't an option because the toilet porcelain is "bone" colored to match the tub. I purchased a replacement flush canister, tank seal, fill valve and flush lever. Amazon screwed up the flush canister order. I had to send it back for a refund and paid twice as much to have Ferguson correctly fulfill the order. I did the labor. No big deal.

I just discovered two fence posts rotten at ground level. I'm hiring a contractor to repair it. It's not beyond my skill level, but I just don't have the time to do it.

[mabarker1]

Does this mean that the won’t be anymore of those stupid “self labeled home improvement/pimp my house expurts shows” on just about every channel ?

[mabarker1]

You’ve been there before I take it ?🤪

[Myrddin]

Travel spending? I haven't traveled since Sept 2017. My 50th high school reunion happens on Sept 30 in Chula Vista, CA. It's a 925 mile drive to San Diego. I can probably still do that. When I get there, I'm going to need a hotel room. The flood of illegals is being handled by putting them up in hotel rooms at taxpayer expense. I can't be certain there will even be a room available for the trip by September. I haven't missed a reunion thus far, but the hotel issue may just screw it up.

[Vaduz]

Discretionary purchases are down across the board.

Wait wait wait Biden said building back better wouldn’t take long if he’s elected.

He’s loaded with a once upon a time stories.

[woodbutcher1963]

FYI, you can order a “BONE” colored toilet from Kohler, American Standard in the exact same color from 1972. I did this ten years ago. My cast iron American Standard tub was installed in 1972. I ordered a new elongated comfort height toilet in “bone” to match. I also ordered an under mount sink to match too.

I believe Kohler actually calls it “linen” not “bone”.

[BipolarBob]

No, they’re all as normal as I am. In fact all of the people are normal in my trailer park.

[Myrddin]

Kohler called it "bone" when we purchased it. Today, the available options are white, "linen" and black for that specific model. I put American Standard "Champion" series in the other two bathrooms. Their flush system was overly complex. When it came time to repair, the replacement mechanism was less complex and less effective. C'est la vie! The master bathroom had a matching gray porcelain toilet and very large tub. It was replaced with a simple white Champion. Getting a matching color replacement was off the table. The original builder of my house did lots of fancy custom stuff that has been more of a headache to keep maintained. Too bad they didn't give as much attention to the air plenums. The "bonus" room upstairs has poor air flow from the force air furnace/air-conditioner. It's a "bonus" room because it lacks a closet necessary to label it as a bedroom. Easily remedied if it ever matters.

Kohler colors.