Texas Home Building and Remodeling Industries Boom

Texas Weathers the Housing Market Storm

The United States Census Bureau released several detailed reports about the home remodeling and construction industry. Texas has been lucky; through the last recession we fared much better than most other states. While areas of New England, California, and Chicago suffered tremendous busts when the sub-prime mortgage lending bubble burst; Texas only felt the shockwaves. The following data from the U. S. Census Bureaus construction and housing reports page shows how resiliently and confidently Texas homebuilders continued to invest. Keep in mind when you look at these numbers as well that the recession started in 2008, just one year before these statistics were extracted.

Table 968. New Privately Owned Housing Units Authorized by State: 2009 and 2010 [583 represents 583,000. Based on about 20,000 places in United States having building permit systems in 2008 and in 2009.] permit systems in 2000 and 20,000 in 2006. FIPS means Federal Information Processing Standards] (Detail may not add to total because of rounding) 2009 2010 2009 2010 State Total Total 1 unit Total Total 1 unit Unit indicator United States Alabama Alaska Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Delaware District of Columbia Florida Georgia Hawaii (1,000) 446.6 95,410 8.1 1,664 0.8 195 10.6 2,736 4.3 818 24.7 7,758 9.1 2,071 2.5 715 2.7 361 0.1 131 30.9 6,789 15.2 2,618 1.9 779

583.0 13.3 0.9 14.5 7.1 35.1 9.4 3.8 3.2 1.1 35.3 18.2 2.6

598.0 10.2 0.9 12.2 6.9 43.1 11.8 3.8 3.1 0.7 39.5 17.7 3.4

101,008 1,453 205 2,405 854 8,968 2,664 804 365 96 7,843 2,703 769

86,723 1,313 184 2,233 725 6,422 2,374 629 338 21 6,957 2,471 583

Idaho 4.9 4.6 4.0 805 774 Illinois 10.9 11.6 7.9 2,101 2,360 Indiana 12.6 13.0 9.9 1,933 1,988 Iowa 7.7 7.3 5.9 1,198 1,191 Kansas 6.7 4.5 3.7 881 746 Kentucky 7.4 6.8 5.4 923 989 Louisiana 12.5 11.5 10.5 1,842 1,808 Maine 3.1 3.0 2.7 493 480 Maryland 11.1 12.2 8.4 2,089 1,943 Massachusetts 7.9 8.6 5.5 1,554 1,683 Michigan 6.9 9.3 7.9 1,173 1,529 Minnesota 9.4 9.7 6.8 1,712 1,752 Mississippi 7.0 4.8 4.0 878 646 Missouri 10.1 8.3 6.0 1,434 1,275 Montana 1.7 2.2 1.5 254 329 Nebraska 5.2 5.0 4.1 725 776 Nevada 6.8 6.4 5.4 749 827 New Hampshire 2.3 2.7 2.0 421 489 New Jersey 12.4 13.3 7.4 2,071 2,017 New Mexico 4.6 4.5 4.0 769 777 New York 18.3 20.2 10.4 3,062 3,191 North Carolina 33.8 33.7 26.0 5,030 5,017 North Dakota 3.2 3.6 2.1 352 450 Ohio 13.3 13.5 10.6 2,194 2,299 Oklahoma 8.8 8.3 7.0 1,302 1,214 Oregon 7.0 7.3 5.7 1,356 1,473 Pennsylvania 18.3 21.3 17.4 3,075 3,465 Rhode Island 1.0 0.9 0.7 162 157 South Carolina 15.5 14.5 13.1 2,534 2,525 South Dakota 3.7 2.9 2.3 464 431 Tennessee 15.0 16.3 11.7 2,079 2,174 Texas 84.4 84.8 65.3 12,542 13,332 Utah 10.0 9.4 7.2 1,573 1,720 Vermont 1.4 1.5 1.2 214 248 Virginia 21.5 21.2 16.3 3,173 3,249 Washington 17.0 20.2 14.8 3,186 4,011 West Virginia 2.2 1.7 1.5 310 269 Wisconsin 10.8 11.8 7.9 1,753 1,858 Wyoming 2.3 2.1 1.4 407 414 Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Construction Reports, "New Residential Construction", For more information:

720 1,726 1,757 1,049 681 825 1,732 463 1,562 1,371 1,422 1,465 587 1,101 266 711 750 424 1,501 734 2,228 4,538 358 2,119 1,140 1,286 3,076 142 2,423 389 1,845 11,875 1,479 212 2,893 3,461 256 1,547 358

http://www.census.gov/const/www/newresconstindex.html Internet release date: 9/30/2011

Texas has the highest number of new houses built in 2009, with over 84,400,000 new home building permits issued there between 2009 and 2010. Florida has the second highest amount of new home build authorizations in 2009 with 35,300,000 new home permits printed that year. California squeaks into a close third with just 35,100,000 new home building permits approved in 2009. Texas, Florida, and California are all very expansive states. Of these three geographically gifted states California has the largest population with over 37 million residents. Thats almost the population of Texas and Florida combined. However, Texas issued about 2 times more home building permits than California in 2009 despite having a third of the population. This indicates that California was hit by the recession harder; more people are choosing to age in place or opt for home remodeling over buying a new home in California.

What are the Most Popular Remodeling Projects? According to the U. S. Census Report, the most common project in the United States (by far) is bathroom remodeling with over 14.5 million homes reporting a bathroom remodel completion in 2009. In second place is kitchen remodeling with over 84,520,000 reported renovations, and bedroom remodeling comes in a close third with over 74,000,000 homes completing a bedroom remodel in 2009. Look at the table below to see for yourself.

Table 1003. Home Remodeling--Number of Households With Work Done By Amount Spent: 2010 [In thousands, except percent (2,535 represents 2,535,000). As of Fall 2010. For work done in the prior 12 months. Based on household survey and subject to sampling error; see source] Number of households by Total households Households amount spent (dollars) with work done \1 with work REMODELING $1,000 Over done by PROJECT to Numb Percent of outside Under $3,00 er households contractor $1,000 $2,999 0 (1,000 (1,00 Unit indicator ) (percent) Number (1,000) (1,000) 0) Convert 2,535 1.11 706 597 410 983 garage/attic/basement into living space Remodel bathroom 14,51 6.36 4,231 5,885 3,167 2,973 1

Remodel kitchen Remodel bedroom Convert room to home office Convert room to home theater Remodel other rooms Add bathroom Add/extend garage Add other rooms exterior addition Add deck/porch/patio Roofing Siding - vinyl/metal Aluminum windows Clad-wood/Wood windows Vinyl windows Ceramic tile floors Hardwood floors Laminate flooring Vinyl flooring Carpeting Kitchen cabinets Kitchen counter tops Skylights Exterior doors Interior doors Garage doors Concrete or masonry work Swimming pool - in ground Wall paneling Ceramic wall tile

8,452 7,146 3,105 723 5,862 1,062 481 1,086 5,414 8,224 2,193 1,589 875 4,719 6,659 4,962 4,700 2,785 7,189 4,400 4,911 787 5,672 4,544 2,649 3,883 560 1,327 2,439

3.71 3.13 1.36 0.32 2.57 0.47 0.21 0.48 2.37 3.61 0.96 0.70 0.38 2.07 2.92 2.18 2.06 1.22 3.15 1.93 2.15 0.35 2.49 1.99 1.16 1.70 0.25 0.58 1.07

3,097 1,196 256 125 1,042 205 110 307 1,654 5,154 1,046 759 468 2,555 2,377 1,928 1,162 864 4,126 1,782 2,553 383 2,186 1,388 1,500 1,922 277 187 901

2,732 4,138 1,927 268 2,887 330 141 256 1,633 1,654 373 350 274 1,212 3,276 1,392 2,428 1,809 2,399 1,081 1,327 289 3,092 2,419 1,188 1,788 137 672 1,458

1,240 1,032 277 201 893 132 32 164 1,433 1,478 293 346 115 950 1,664 1,455 874 239 2,147 792 983 49 1,009 676 796 734 36 59 317

3,062 451 66 103 1,079 247 164 435 1,315 3,842 907 433 399 1,625 514 1,068 485 114 1,057 1,420 1,456 79 273 234 54 665 294 24 84

FOOTNOTES \1 Includes no response and amount unknown. Source: GfK Mediamark Research & Intelligence. LLC, New York, NY, Top-Line Reports, (copyright) For more information: http://www.gfkmri.com/ Internet release date: 9/30/2011

What do These Numbers Mean? Of the 145 million homes that completed bathroom remodeling projects in 2009, nearly 59 million of these households spent less than a thousand dollars. Many of these must have been DIY jobs, because the cost of even a half bath remodel costs more than a thousand dollars in materials alone. This report also indicates that people hire outside remodeling companies most to perform the following jobs in descending order.

Roofing Bathroom Remodeling Carpet Installation Kitchen Remodeling Vinyl Window Replacement Ceramic Tile Floor Installation

The only surprising revelation from this data is that homeowners hire outside remodeling companies to remodel their kitchens less frequently than they do to install carpet. However, the high cost of remodeling a kitchen compared to installing carpet could account for this difference. The validity of the reports is also questionable, because according to the data only about half of homeowners who have in-ground pools put in hire an outside company to build them. DIY videos are very helpful, but it is unlikely that they can walk you through the grueling process of designing a pool, excavating the pool site, and building the pool.

We hope you find this information useful. Please leave a comment or share any related remodeling statistics or links that we may have missed on these topics. We love a good remodeling discussion.