After Unprecedented Pandemic Era Boom, Remodeling Businesses Returning to Traditional Growth4/18/2023 ![]() The remodeling industry is enjoying a marginally good spring, according to a new industry survey, holding onto gains secured last year. A remodeling market index released by the National Association of Home Builders provides an overall survey reading of 70 for current conditions, up from the 69 reported in late 2022. Any figure over 50 indicates that remodelers view the state of their markets as good rather than poor. What is officially called the NAHB/Westlake Royal Remodeling Market Index showed strength when remodelers were asked to evaluate future project leads, jumping from 62 last fall to 64 today. Those remodelers, said Alan Archuleta, NAHB Remodelers Chair, are “generally optimistic about the home improvement market, although some are noting the negative effects of material shortages and higher interest rates.” Continued Archuleta in a statement: “Customers are still undertaking larger projects but are mostly paying cash rather than financing them.” A particular area of industry strength: what is known as the aging-in-place segment seeing Baby Boomers embracing bathroom projects like curb-less showers and grab bars. The remodeling industry in general has experienced a bit of a wild ride in recent years, with the market index measuring a somewhat dormant 47 in the first quarter of 2020, before exploding to the mid and upper-80s during the Covid pandemic when millions of Americans were staying home and spearheading remodeling projects. The index peaked at 87 during the final two quarters of 2021, before settling into the mid-70s range last summer. The future indicators index has proven equally erratic, jumping from 37 in early 2020 to 83 in the summer of 2021. Last year’s numbers in this category ranged from 62 to 78. By Garry Boulard
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![]() Up to 450 new homes may be built just to the northeast of Colorado Springs on an undeveloped, open rural site comprising some 142 acres. The project, which belongs to the Colorado Springs-based Classic Communities company, will see homes going up on 2.5-acre lots on a site just to the southwest of the intersection of Poco Road and Vollmer Road, around 15 miles to the northeast of downtown Colorado Springs. The proposal has now won the backing of the El Paso County Planning Commission after that body two months ago rejected the project for not integrating nature elements into the layout of some of its lots. The project has sparked the opposition of nearby residents who have maintained that it is too large for the area and will significantly increase traffic. According to county documents, the project has been described as an “urban character mixed residential development interspersed throughout the property,” that would include both a neighborhood commercial center as well as a more than 3-acre centrally located neighborhood park. The project is partly designed to respond to a historic growth in El Paso County, which has gone from 517,000 people two decades ago, to more than 750,000 today. According to a report compiled by the Colorado Department of Transportation, the county’s number are expected to exceed 801,000 by the end of this decade. By Garry Boulard ![]() Construction could begin later this year on a modern welcome center that will be a part of the vast Spaceport America properties 20 miles to the southeast of Truth or Consequences. The anticipated three-story building, measuring around 30,000 square feet, will house an auditorium, conference rooms, and offices, among other features. What is being called the Spaceport Technology and Reception Center will be tasked with serving visitors, while also providing workspace for Spaceport America staff. According to public documents, the new facility will also have a lounge and viewing areas on its 2nd and 3rd floors, while providing “modern, comfortable work and meeting spaces” for staff. Sitting on some 18,000 acres, Spaceport America, the first purpose-built commercial spaceport in the world, was officially opened in the fall of 2011, with an initial visitors’ center opened nearly four years later. According to reports, the existing visitors’ center has been confronted with several structural issues, including a leaky roof. Spaceport America officials are also said to not be happy with the location of the current center, situated as it is behind the large aviation operations area. According to Spaceport America documents, a design-build project delivery method will be used to build the new reception center. Because previous structures at the spaceport have been designed to blend in with and pay homage to the “aesthetic harmony” of the surrounding desert terrain, it is expected that the new center will exhibit “exterior finishes that resemble the local landscape while creating a distinctive architecture that captures the bold and innovative spirit of Spaceport America.” An exact schedule for when work on the new facility will begin has not yet been announced. By Garry Boulard ![]() As most Americans have already filed their income tax papers with the Internal Revenue Service, while a plurality has asked for an extension, a new survey is showing how disparate tax rates are at the state level. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, state income taxes vary widely not only across the country but within specific regions of the country. In the West, for example, New Mexico leads the way with a 5.9% marginal tax rate, while next-door Colorado is marginally lower at 4.4%, and Arizona is the lowest of all at 2.5%. The nation’s mega states also show wildly differing policies. California currently has the highest tax rate at 13.3%, followed by New York’s 10.9%. Both Texas and Florida have a 0% tax rate, or no income taxes at all. Five other states also boast a 0% tax rate: Tennessee, South Dakota, Wyoming, Nevada, and Alaska. The higher tax rate states tended to be bunched into the same region in the Northeast, with New Jersey at 10.7% and Massachusetts only slightly lower at 9%. Vermont’s rate is currently set at 8.7%, with Maine at 7.1%. The Northeast also scored higher in the category of per capita property taxes, with Massachusetts, Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Hampshire, and New Jersey ranging between $2,600 and $3,400. In the category of sales taxes, the South has some of the country’s highest rates, with Louisiana and Tennessee at 9.5%, followed by Arkansas and Mississippi at 9.4% and 9.2% respectively. In the West, California and Arizona were among the highest at 8.8% and 8.3% respectively. Both New Mexico and Colorado were marginally lower, both having a 7.7% rate. Four states - New Hampshire, Delaware, Montana, and Oregon - have no sales taxes at all. While state income taxes don’t appear to summon up the same dread as taxes owed to the IRS, a separate survey just released by the Gallup polling service shows a strong 43% of respondents classified as “very dissatisfied” with the amount of federal taxes they pay, compared to a combined 26% who say they are either very or somewhat satisfied. The “very dissatisfied” response at 43% is at the highest level recorded in the last two decades. Last year the number of people in this category stood at 37%, and only as recently as 2019 the figure was even lower at 25%. By Garry Boulard ![]() A bill is winding its way through the Arizona State Legislature that would provide funding for the building of a water infrastructure project in the upper northern part of the state. As proposed by Senator Theresa Hatathlie, Senate Bill 1469 would provide just over $5.4 million for the expansion of a water treatment plant in the small town of Page; with another $13.5 million going for the design and construction of a pipeline connected to the project. A final $23 million is slated for the design and construction of an intake pump station. The funding would come out of the state’s General Fund. The project has long been in the talking stage and would provide, if built, needed water infrastructure for the city of Page, which has a population of around 7,200 people, as well as nearby LeChee, four miles to the south, with a population of some 1,400 people. According to sources, the new water infrastructure would replace existing infrastructure that dates to the 1950s. The bill is now in the House Rules Committee, with the larger legislature scheduled to conclude its spring session on April 22. By Garry Boulard ![]() Plans have been announced for the construction of a new Veterans Affairs care facility in El Paso. The El Paso VA Medical Center will go up on the east side of the city within the borders of the William Beaumont Medical Center campus at Fort Bliss and will be designed to respond to the healthcare needs of the roughly 46,000 veterans who live in surrounding El Paso County and beyond. Funding for VA care facility projects in El Paso has been secured by Congress in two phases. Last year, $150 million was approved for work on the existing nearly 30-year-old VA care center at 5001 N. Piedras Street, which opened in the fall of 1995. The latest round of funding is dedicated to the construction of the new center. As planned, the new facility will be built adjacent to the William Beaumont Army Medical Center at 18511 Highlander Medics Street. It is thought that it will take at least 4 years to complete the new center. By Garry Boulard ![]() Despite forecasts issued late last year that student housing construction is slowing down, the demand for such housing remains as great as ever, says a new report. The commercial real estate data and research firm Yardi Matrix is recording that both student housing rent growth as well as preleasing activity has shown record growth during the first quarter of this year, with the “momentum expected to continue for the remaining six months of the leasing season” until mid-summer. The demand appears to be the most acute in “larger, more competitive universities where enrollment is increasingly concentrated.” The demand, additionally, is seen for housing both on and near campuses. University markets located in urban or downtown areas seem to be seeing the greatest demand for student housing, a decided improvement over where things stood in late 2020 during the pandemic when such demand was significantly off. Of the 200 universities surveyed by Yardi Matrix, just under 70% of beds were already leased for the fall 2023 semester. That number marks a 7.8% increase compared with the first quarter of 2022. At the same time rents have increased by some 7% during the first quarter of this year, compared with January to March of last year, for an average of $829 per bedroom. That $829 marks the highest rent ever recorded for this particular market segment. The pipeline also looks promising, with around 70,000 student housing bedrooms currently under construction, a jump of 20,000 beds over the last four months of last year. Despite all the good news, the Yardi Matrix report warns that “high interest rates, reduced debt-market liquidity and weakening investor sentiment” are combining to put a damper on long-term student housing construction prospects. By Garry Boulard ![]() Up to $13 million in new funding may soon be available for the construction of affordable housing in Colorado if a bill in the state legislature becomes law. The measure will place the $13 million in what is called the Unused State-Owned Real Property Fund, thus supporting the state’s existing Public-Private Collaboration Unit, which is tasked with spurring housing on publicly owned land. The collaboration unit was created last year as the result of a vote by the legislature. It specifically called for the state’s Department of Personal & Administration to plan and design public-private partnership projects with the goal of increasing affordable housing. An important part of the legislation is the real estate component: by spurring affordable housing construction on land owned by the state, the cost of any such development is substantially reduced. Now Senator Dylan Robert, in proposing Senate Bill 23-001, hopes to build on last year’s creation of the collaboration unit by exactly spelling out how local public private partnerships can spur affordable home construction. The legislature further outlines policies for donations and the use of proceeds from real estate transactions, while also establishing, according to the language of the bill, a process for “using requests for information to solicit public projects.” A recent analysis compiled by the Washington-based group Up for Growth, which is dedicated to housing solutions, said that the Centennial State is currently in need of at least 127,000 new affordable housing units in order to keep up with demand. Senator Roberts’ bill is now under consideration in the Colorado House of Representatives. By Garry Boulard ![]() Funding for a series of senior citizen center construction and upgrade projects has won the approval of New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. As proposed by the state’s Aging and Long-Term Services Department, more than 70 such projects were initially approved earlier this spring by members of the New Mexico State Legislature. The largest such project on the list: the construction of a senior center in Gallup, which received $7.4 million in funding. That $7.4 million is specifically designated not just for construction work, but also the planning and design of the center, as well as its furnishing. What is being called the Gallup Regional Senior Center previously secured $5.5 million in funding as a result of the successful passage last November of the state’s General Obligation Bond 1. The new Gallup facility is designed to replace a current senior center at 607 N. 4th Street, which, according to state documents, is “limited in its ability to expand and meet the growing and changing needs” of the city’s seniors. By Garry Boulard ![]() Accelerating an already existing pattern, more than 2 million people moved out of the largest urban counties in the United States in the last two years, primarily as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, according to a new report. That report, As Major Cities Struggle to Rebound, Remote Work Continues to Shift Population Growth, published by the Washington-based Economic Innovation Group, charts an exit of some 1.2 million people between the covid summer of 2020 and the following summer. Another 860,000 people headed for the suburbs or countryside between July of 2021 and last July. While smaller urban counties have somewhat bounced back since the worst of the exit in 2020, the report records that exurban and suburban counties saw the greatest growth in the last two years, adding 931,000 people in 2021 and 832,000 last year. The urban exit is most dramatic when compared with trends over the last decade: in 2013 only 100,000 people had left the nation’s most urban counties, a pattern that gradually climbed to just over 450,000 the year before the Covid 19 outbreak. A parallel trend supporting urban exit has been the emergence of remote work. In an earlier published report by the Economic Innovation Group, it was noted that the availability of remote work has been “an important driver of population loss in dense urban counties.” Although the remote work effect has diminished somewhat in recent months, says the report, the fact that in the fall of 2021 “nearly four times as many people planned to move because of remote work as had moved already,” suggests that “the long-run impact is still unfolding.” By Garry Boulard |
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