Renovation & Construction Costs
Multiple articles in the last few weeks about the massive slowdown in construction and bad times ahead for the renovation / construction industry. Soooo … why haven’t renovation prices come down at all? I’m still getting the same quotes that I was getting 6 months ago for a brownstone gut renovation.
Multiple articles in the last few weeks about the massive slowdown in construction and bad times ahead for the renovation / construction industry.
Soooo … why haven’t renovation prices come down at all?
I’m still getting the same quotes that I was getting 6 months ago for a brownstone gut renovation.
i am glad you asked this question–i have been wondering about this too. I just wish the downturn would make these contractors easier to work with–despite the economic downturn-my contractor walks around like a total primadonna and always acts like he is doing me some kind of favor. Meanwhile I am working 80 hours a week to pay him. Seems kind of f-ed up.
as an Expediter i have not seen a slow down yet. as an architect i learned that the first dry up is in the planning stage. it takes a while to trickle down to the people actually doing the work. look for it to hit the designers after christmas. at the department of buildings the lines are longer than ever. the big companies have hired so much new help the DOB had to delay expediter licenses a few months to slow the tide.
I work as a freelance builder (not of houses, but of other things) and while I anticipate a slowdown, I am still really busy. I have no idea what’s going on of course, but I think that most of my clients are pushing projects through that they know funding will dry up for in the near future. This has resulted in a glut of work that I, at this point, assume will not be replaced after xmas.
As to Ysabelle’s theory, it’s both astoundingly ignorant and typical of the way she tends to demonize contractors. If I really truly wasn’t busy I would definitely lower my price in order to get more work. And I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t.
Interesting. I wonder exactly how long one will need to wait?
We are actually in the middle of the design phase with our architect and will hopefully get to bids sometime in November for work starting in the new year.
Just hoping that there is a bit of competition out there given the change in the economy (fingers crossed).
I’m not familiar with the current market but based on my experience with the 89-93 economic downturn, it took a while for contractors to lower prices but eventually they did.
In ’92 I was in the right place / right time. I had brownstone refacing, cornice and door restoration done and contractors were responsive and prices had come down. I used a top notch contractor who I would not have been able to afford a couple of years earlier. He was still very expensive but his price had come down enough. When the market picked up his prices skyrocketed.
Construction has been slow in New Jersey for a while but is just starting to affect NY. Wait a while.
Contracting business is slow right now due to the poor economy.
The problem is the companies are charging the same if not higher prices for the same work because they have less clients.
Why should the client make up the deficit. These guys are going to lose more money because of their atittude and the bad economy.
In other words they have poor math and people skills.
Who knows how the work will turn out under those circumstances.
Pricing jobs is not their strong point.
Handyman Eric:
Thnaks for the info but I’m not talking about trying to get a low-ball bid or not paying a living wage. I’m taking about GC’s that jacked up their prices during the boom times (my project would have cost 20% less a few years ago, inflation adjusted) and have yet to bring them back to earth. Maybe your experience buying copper gutters is the reason renovation prices haven’t come down yet but a few more months of recession and falling commodities prices have to eventually show up in construction materials costs! Then the GC decision will be: do I pass along those savings to potential clients and get to work or do I sit on my butt like a $3MM-Ask Fixer-Upper Park Slope Townhouse waiting for the “market to turn”.
We’ve noticed this too. Our big-ticket trades (plumber, carpenter, electrician) are holding the line on costs. We have seen some flexibility in the smaller trades – we had a flooring quote by a small company come down even after we added scope to the job (assume they need the work) and are expecting the (one-man operation) finish carpenter and tiler to be more flexible too as the number of their jobs dries up.
You can look at all the graphs you like, but the prices you cite have not had an effect on what materials cost at the local supplier. Copper gutters are still expensive.
AND despite a falling economy, people still need to pay their crews and themselves a living wage, and liability & commercial insurance, rent, the phone bill . These costs have not gone down.
Keep in mind, in construction as in most things, you get what you pay for. A low ball bid will come back to haunt you later; I spent most of last week fixing the mistakes of a cheap renovation.
thx, handymaneric.com