History guides us in the remodeling industry

The other day, I stumbled upon some old Census Bureau statistics that may give us a little hope for our industry.

The Expenditures for Residential Improvements and Repairs statistics for 1966 to 2007 shed some interesting information. The report measured Total Expenditures, Maintenance and Repairs Expenditures, and Improvements Expenditures which up until 2004 was broken down between Improvements, Additions & Alterations, and Major Replacements. Starting in 2004, the Census Bureau dropped Additions & Alterations and Major Replacements from the Improvements category.

In the 60’s, both the Maintenance and Repair category and the Improvements category remained relatively unchanged and were both pretty modest.

In the early 70’s, improvements began to pick up, followed by Maintenance and Repairs in the late 70’s. That makes sense as all of those new additions and improvements now needed some attention to keep them well-maintained.

Along came the early 80’s, a recession hit and Improvements went down. But Maintenance and Repairs went up! The recession officially ended in November of 1982 and by the late 1980’s both Improvements and Maintenance and Repairs exploded.

That puts us into the early 90’s and our economy again suffered a recession from July 1990 to March 1991. Not surprisingly, Improvements again went down while Maintenance and Repairs increased in 1991 and decreased in 1992. But beginning in 1993, Improvements began their ascent while Maintenance and Repairs remained pretty steady through the rest of the 1990’s.

But wait, around 2003, Maintenance and Repairs again began to rise, due in part to (once again) work needed on all of those Improvements that had been built in the previous decade.

Unfortunately, the Census Bureau no longer keeps statistics on Maintenance and Repair so we can’t track that information after 2007, but if history were to be our guide, Maintenance and Repair would rise as Improvements fall during our current recession.

Does that give you some hints as to the type of work to be going after right now?