More people, feeling flush, are showing their homes some TLC

With the Wichita housing market stronger now than at any time in recent memory, a tributary of the market has also picked up steam.

From May 2015 through May 2016, there was a 55 percent year-over-year increase in the number of home improvement and repair projects started in Wichita. That’s according to figures from HomeAdvisor, a national referral website that vets contractors.

The firm got the numbers by polling hundreds of home improvement professionals in its Wichita network.

HomeAdvisor economist Brad Hunter said the reasons behind the spike could be because people are finally feeling good about their financial situations.

“People deferred spending a lot of money on things they could defer on back when things were especially tough during the recession,” Hunter said. “Most of the economic numbers (nationally) are pointing upward, and people are seeing better economic times. Consumer confidence has come up.”

While the HomeAdvisor’s data is not scientific – the spike could simply be due to more homeowners using its services – a combination of factors has likely led to more home improvement and repair work for contractors in the Wichita area.

Trevor Portier, owner of Paramount Construction in Wichita and a member of the HomeAdvisor network, said his business has picked up slightly this year when compared to 2015 but that he’s seen an increase in damage repair jobs following a string of hail storms in the area this spring.

“We’ve had a lot of restoration work from the storms,” Portier said. “Things like roof leaks and windows. This time of year, people also are thinking about outdoor-living projects.”

While Hunter said there’s no concrete national average for home improvement projects, he did relay that Wichita is either on par with or more busy than a number of major U.S. cities. In the past year, Wichita had a bigger increase in projects than Washington, D.C. (up 41 percent), Houston (53 percent) and Atlanta (53 percent).

“When confidence and jobs and income go up, people tend to invest more money in their home,” Hunter said. “Another major driver is that home prices have rebounded. Prices went down in a big way during the economic downturn, but we’ve seen a strong increase in prices since we hit that bottom.

“People who had negative equity, that group has basically been halved,” Hunter said. “As people have more equity in their home, some have taken out a home equity line of credit to do projects. In general, people are feeling richer and more prone to taking on a home improvement project.”

Last year ‘gangbusters’

Geremy Farha, owner of Farha Home Trends in Wichita, said work has been steady so far this year.

“Last year and 2014 were just gangbusters for us,” Farha said. “Last year was especially crazy. Oil is down this year and it’s an election year, which maybe has something to do with it. We’re still at a steady pace right now. If people have money to invest, your home is a good place to do it.”

Though he runs a small operation – typically just himself and perhaps one other contractor – Click Construction owner Zach Click said he has up to a two-month wait to complete a job.

“I’ve been in business for almost six years, and the past couple years have been by far my busiest,” Click said. “I have at least a four-week wait to start on a job right now. I’ve wondered if it’s this busy because of some economic factor here in Wichita or if it’s just pent-up from people not spending money the past few years.”

According to the Home Improvement Research Institute – a nonprofit organization of manufacturers, retailers and wholesalers – Americans spent $319 billion on residential construction and home improvement in 2015. This year, that number is expected to swell to $334 billion, according to the institute.

From May 2015 through last month, HomeAdvisor reports that home improvement and repair projects are up 48 percent across the entire state of Kansas, meaning Wichita is outpacing the state average.

Cost of projects down

While HomeAdvisor’s data shows projects are up in Wichita, it also shows that people are spending less per task.

“What that tells me is that people are doing more small projects,” Hunter said. “Those tend to be maintenance and repair projects rather than improvements. That said, we’re also seeing people spend on these bigger projects, like a kitchen remodel or building an addition.”

According to HomeAdvisor, the average cost of a kitchen remodeling project in Wichita in the past year is about $14,300. Putting an addition on a home in Wichita has averaged about $16,300 in the past 12 months.

The averages are slightly below the national average for both projects, Hunter said.

“There are also a lot of smaller tasks like faucet/fixture repair, air-conditioner repair, water heater or lawn projects,” Hunter said. “Those smaller projects tend to be in the $200 to $700 range.”

Among the most five most common projects solicited by customers in HomeAdvisor’s network in Wichita from May 2015 through May 2016 are bathroom remodels, kitchen remodels, construction of a deck or porch and the repair or replacement of a faucet or pipes.

Home sales and average home prices are both up recently in Wichita. For April, the latest numbers available from the South Central Kansas Multiple Listing Service show sales were up 8.5 percent when compared with April 2015, while the sale price of an existing home was up 2 percent.

“What’s happened (in Wichita) is that the increase in home prices has been a double-edged sword,” Hunter said. “On one hand, it’s made people feel richer, which is a great spur for the economy, and it encourages people to invest money in their home.

“At the same time, the recent jump in prices might cause some people to choose to spend money improving their existing home instead of moving to a larger house or to a newer house in a different neighborhood.”

HomeAdvisor is owned by IAC, a New York-based media and internet company that boasts such brands as video-sharing site Vimeo and news site the Daily Beast. Home Advisor is based in Colorado and has a sales office in Lenexa.

This story was originally published June 8, 2016 at 4:27 PM with the headline "More people, feeling flush, are showing their homes some TLC."