Remodeling a growing option

Home sales market remains steady, but many homeowners still opt for makeovers

By Patrick Cooley, pcooley@mariettatimes.com
With trouble with the housing industry nationwide causing problems for home owners in regions such as California and Florida, Washington County seems to be better off than some areas.

According to the Multiple Listing Service, a system that lists all of the houses available for sale in Washington County, there were 452 houses sold from March 12, 2007, to Wednesday, and 454 houses sold from March 12, 2006, to March 12, 2007.

“The market here hasn’t made a dramatic dropoff,” said Nancy Arthur, the owner/broker of Advantage Real Estate, one of the sponsors of this weekend’s home show at the county fairgrounds. “Real estate is all about location. There are places in Texas and Connecticut where they can’t find enough time to build everything they want to build.”

She said there might be fewer houses on the market, but it is still a good time to buy and sell.

“We have definitely noticed a difference in the market from last year,” Arthur said. “But there are still a lot of good buys. You could still get an interest rate (on your mortgage) in the 5.5 percent to 6 percent range.”

The current average price of a home in Washington County is $98,000, which is approximately a 2 percent fall from this time last year.

“That change is very minute, and I don’t consider it significant,” Arthur said. “We still have $200,000-plus houses that are selling and $30,000 to $40,000 that are selling.”

Jerry Offenberger, owner of Jerry Offenberger Construction, said the cost of building or renovating a house has risen with fuel prices; however, the exact amount the prices have risen is hard to quantify with so many factors involved.

“The costs of remodeling have risen just because of material costs,” he said. “So many products we use are petroleum based.”

There are reports that the construction industry has turned less toward building houses and more toward remodeling and renovation projects.

“People are becoming more patient,” said Chip Ditchendorf, the owner of C. F. Ditchendorf Contracting. “They’re willing to wait for a contractor to renovate their home, rather than settling for a new home on an impulse buy.

“I think in the last decade we’ve been seeing people kind of puddle jump, using the home as a vehicle to enhance their equity or as a savings. Now people are more ready to settle down,” he said.

Jim Boersma, 57, of Marietta recently had his kitchen renovated, and said it was a fairly smooth process.

“We just had a major renovation to our kitchen,” he said. “About eight years ago we connected our main house with the house next door. When we did that, the kitchen became not as functional as it could be, so we needed to do something.”

Having work done on his house is nothing new for Boersma and his wife, Kathy.

“We’ve lived here for 30 years,” he said. “And we’ve renovated, and we’ve renovated and we’ve renovated. The house is probably about two and a half times bigger than it was when we bought it.”

This weekend, the annual Washington County Homebuilders’ Association Home Show will be taking place at the Washington County Fairgrounds. The hours will be 4 to 8 p.m. on Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday.

There will be 40 vendors, including construction contractors, developers, painting companies, insulation companies, mortgage companies and real estate companies. The event is sponsored by Washington Electric Cooperative, Inc., Jerry Offenberger Construction and the Homebuilders’ Association of Washington County, Advantage Real Estate, Oakwood Furniture, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage, and The Marietta Times.