Construction industry makes slow comeback in Fayette
Fayette County contractors who are flexible have plenty of work despite a slowdown in new home construction.
Carl Ciez, president of the Builders Association of Fayette County, said the local housing market “is still slow.”
“Everyone in our association says it’s already reached lowest and is slowly coming back. It’s just like the whole economy overall. When it started tightening up, it was the home building industry that kept it going. But then that dissipated, too, because of all the stuff that happened with bank lending.
“Banks are more strict now on what they are doing with loan money,” he said.
But Ciez added that commercial construction in the area seems to be climbing.
“There are more commercial plazas that are going up. More residential growth and rental properties are also starting to come online,” he said.
However, Ciez said that the construction industry remains a “good business to get into.”
“A couple of years ago, the average age of someone in my business was 54 years. That shows we are going to need younger people coming into the business.
“I haven’t missed a day’s work in over 20 years,” he continued. “There is work if you want it. Guys who just do new home construction got hit pretty hard. But others who do remodeling, too, have been doing well.
“The way the local housing market has been, home starts are way down but people have been forced to look at remodeling instead of building a new home,” he said.
That’s supported by information from the Pennsylvania Builders Association (PBA).
“Whether remodeling a kitchen, adding a family room, installing replacement windows or simply changing a light fixture, millions of Americans each year undertake some type of home improvement project.
“For society as a whole, home improvement spending bolsters annual growth of the economy at the same time that it preserves and enhances the nation’s $13 trillion housing stock,” according to the PBA.
Improvements such as detached garages, driveways, patios and replacements following natural disasters accounted for another $30 billion in homeowner improvement spending, the PBA said.
PBA statistics show that owners making major kitchen improvements or alterations (costing at least $10,000) accounted for almost $11 billion of the $14 billion spent each year in the category.
Major bath remodels, additions and alterations (costing $5,000) contributed $8.3 billion of the $10.6 billion spent annually.
“Like new residential construction, remodeling spending has directly benefited from several years of rising rates of home ownership, rapid increases in home prices and low interest rates,” the PBA said.
In Fayette County, the Office of Planning and Zoning administers the zoning and planning for 31 of the 42 municipalities in the county. The 11 municipalities that are not administered by this county office but instead administer they own zoning and planning issues are the cities of Uniontown and Connellsville, the boroughs of Perryopolis and Ohiopyle and the townships of Connellsville Township, Henry Clay, Menallen, Stewart, South Union, Washington and Wharton.
According to the Office of Planning and Zoning, there were 517 building permits issued in 2011. That was down slightly from 527 in 2010 and 540 in 2009.
In the Pittsburgh Metropolitan Statistical Area (PMSA) — which includes Fayette, Washington, Westmoreland, Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler and Beaver counties — there were 3,815 building permits issued in 2010, a 15 percent drop from 2009, according to the PBA.
Meanwhile, home-builder confidence in the market for new single-family homes increased for the fifth consecutive month in February, rising from 25 to 29 on the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB)/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index (HMI). It is the highest level the index has reached in more than four years.
“Builder confidence has doubled since September as measured by the HMI,” said NAHB Chairman Barry Rutenberg, a home builder from Gainesville, Fla. “Given the recent improvements in new home starts and the increasing number of markets included in the NAHB/First American Improving Markets Index, this consistency suggests that the housing market is moving toward more sustainable growth.”
Rutenberg cautioned that the housing sector remains very fragile, with significant differences between individual markets, and said policymakers must guard against actions that could impede or even reverse the gains of recent months.
“This is the longest period of sustained improvement we have seen in the HMI since 2007, which is encouraging,” said NAHB Chief Economist David Crowe. “However, it is important to remember that the HMI is still very low, and several factors continue to constrain the market. Foreclosures are still competing with new home sales, and many builders are seeing appraisals come in at less than the cost of construction. Additionally, prospective home buyers are finding it difficult to qualify for a mortgage.”