Is home improvement / contractor pricing coming down at all?

A few months after the Covid thing started, contractor pricing skyrocketed and continued to rise.

Has it since receded at all?

I've been thinking about putting a Great Room addition on my house. Pre-Covid, I was looking at something in the $175/SF ballpark. After Covid, that shot up into the $300's.

I'm curious as to where we are (relatively speaking) now.

Thanks for any replies.

 

Was the price hike due to materials?

 

Materials went up and that is playing a part, yes, but labor went up a whole lot.

Contractors exploiting the situation is a factor as well.

 

Hang on...things are about to get so bad it will probably be 75 SF

 

That's kinda what my play is...waiting for shit to crash bigly.

It will never be $75/SF, though.

 

The area you live in plays a big part in prices.

Good work is not cheap and most good companies have far to much work and not enough help.

Many fly by night companies doing very poor work.

In this area the cost of materials is ever climbing. The price of a small shop was $60,000.00 one bay 14' overhead door .

 

Are there any signs of this changing or is this going to be the way it is from here forward?

 

Electrician here. Materials are supposed to be catching up, so those should be returning to normal. But everyone is still short-staffed, and the one's that do show up are demanding more for less work.

So probably not going to change anytime soon.

 

I've been doing some more research on this.

Seeing crazy stories of how it's now costing as much to add a relatively small addition as it did to build the entire house not that many years ago.

 

Unless I had the skills to pour and marry the foundation myself, now is not the time for contract projects. We are still in an economy where its much cheaper to move than improve.

 

I wonder how much longer that will be the case.

 

Years

 

If i get started I would be banned.

Enough said!

 

What's the PG-13 version?

 

Ha ha ha !! there is not any version I could post!

 

From say starting in the 3rd quarter of 2020 and going clear through 2021, it seemed like every third house in my area had a dumpster and a porta potty out front. Big home improvement projects were going on EVERYWHERE. Today, I see almost nothing going on. I'd have to think that demand has dropped. A lot.

 

I'm a self employed tile installer with almost 20 years of professional experience.

The best way to save a lot of money on a project is to play the role of the general contractor. You should be able to save at least 20% on the cost of the work.
And then to save even more money you need to stay away from any large sub contractor companies. Small companies have way less overhead costs so prices can be 20-40% less than the big companies.
But that means you have to hunt down good sub contractors, schedule everything yourself, and probably triple the time it will take for you to get your project done.

Currently we are seeing less and less middle class work but are flooded with rich people work.
I would think by the end of the year pricing should get better now that the interest rates are up and work is drying out for middle class remodels.

 

It's funny that you mention "rich people work".

I was actually going to mention that I feel that one of the changes that was triggered by "the Covid thing" is that home improvement projects, at least the major ones (additions, renos, etc.) are now only accessible to the rich. Even the Upper Middle Class now has trouble writing the size checks that are needed for even a basic project.

As an aside, I also argue that vacationing is now exclusive to the rich.

It really is a completely different world than it was a mere 3 years ago.

 

Full time carpenter here. My company has more worked lined up currently then we did pre-covid. Supply chain issues are still a very real thing. So is the cost of living and our wages have kept pace with that. Once inflation sets in there is no such thing as deflation in regard to wages. If we get another depression it's possible wages and COL decrease but barring that things are gonna stay they same for the foreseeable future.

 

What is your company charging per SF for an addition?

Yes, I know that question has a LOT of variables in it.

But in general.

Thanks.