Have you noticed

[TB Roye]

I live in Sacramento, CA and am retired. Being retired I don't go to the Blue or the Orange Borgs on the weekends. I do go during the week depending on what project I am doing. There is 2 Home Depots and 1 Lowes nearby and when I go lately they are not very busy especially early in the morning. Home Building is virtualy shut down here and it showes. Just don't see the contractors and truck loads of building materials leaving either of the Big Box home inprovement stores like I used to. How is it in you area? Went to a nearby HD to price some material for repairs at chuch and had the place to myself and all the help I needed, same at Lowes in and out in 10 minuets instead of 30 like normal and again lots of help.

Tom

[smorris]

I've noticed that at our Lowes. In and out and no lines of trucks being loaded. Seems it is mostly just homeowners these days. Maybe it will drive the prices down some as demand dries up some.

[cwithboat]

I was wandering around the BORG last week and I nearly fainted from shock when someone asked if they could help me.

[Hellrazor]

Things are slow. I went to HD early on a sunday morning a few weeks back. The place was empty, which is off for early morning. No lines to checkout, etc. I've been taking thursday and friday off the last 3 weeks to use up my vacation time and spent a decent amount of time in Lowes and HD buying stuff for projects. It is rather slow everywhere. The building supply place I have a contractors account at seemed slow the 2 times I was there this past week too.

[LinuxRandal]

Locally, I've got some builder friends who have/are working other careers/jobs.

One a police officer (now) that used to work under me as a kid, that almost quit the force. Now he says he can't afford to build.
Another builder, sat of some houses for a couple of years, and now has a job doing remodeling for someone else's company.
Two, local 30 milliion dollar, land development deals, that are on standby (land was bought, but no houses yet).

Then the other day, one of the regulars from the borg was in and said they have gone to haggle pricing. I went in and looked, and saw a sign on the doors, aimed at builders to haggle for their needs.

They aren't the only market that is hurting. A lot of locals are complaining about how much the taxes of their new homes have gone up, while houses aren't selling.

I picked up the most wanted model of a RAS the other day, for a note. Guy used to have his own painting company, and two of his builders went bankrupt (after dropping two houses, well over $100,000 each to try to stay alive). He ended up downsizing everything, including his home, which was why he was selling it.

[JeffG78]

My HD is slow too. Even on the weekends, the checkout people are usually standing around waiting for customers. Also, I have been getting 10% off coupons in the mail at least once a week over the last few months.

[Uncle Cracker]

I am sure many have postponed non-essential projects with the economy and the employment outlook as they are right now. A bit scary...

[jackellis]

We're going to build a new house (retirement) starting at the end of the summer. We've picked the builder and he says material prices are well below the peak, though they've come off the bottom a bit.

We expect to get a good deal on his fee, too.

[Ed62]

One of my sons is in the home improvement business. He still has enough work. But there are a lot of his associates who tell him they are having a hard time staying busy.

In times like this, people are looking for quality workmanship, but I think they're more concerned with price than high quality workmanship. So contractors need to be very competitive while being careful not to lose money on jobs. Everyone needs to make a living.

Ed

[ironhat]

I can't tell how they're doing. I don't go until I have a long list so that I can make the 20+ mile round trip worth the expenditure of gas.

[Hoover]

On a slightly different vane, most home building in the Puget Sound region north of Seattle has slowed down. However a young man who powered washed my roofs yesterday on my garage and shed, said that they are still building houses. The quality builders may be building smaller homes now, but the fly by night outfits are no longer here.

[cabinetman]

We've got many HD's that are less than 8 miles apart. Usually there is a Lowes within 1/2 mile of a HD. The times I've been to either in the last week or so, there were less commercial looking vehicles than usual. Maybe some of the trucks aren't marked.

They haven't been as busy as usual, but I do notice the DIY'er being more active. I was in HD last week and there was a large sign as you went in the store that had in big red letters: We Will Not Be Undersold.
.

[iceman61]

As a home improvement contractor, business have been hit & miss around this area. Some local towns are doing more home improvements, while others are still building new houses like there is no end. It seems to be in direct relation to what the local industry is. Some towns are mostly industry while others are retail & service related. The latter of the two is doing the best economy wise. There is alot of storm damage to be repaired in this area (hail & tornado).

As for materials, OSB has almost doubled & shingles are about to double from a year ago. Right now roofing from storm damage is about 80% of my business & it's scarey to bid a roofing job when shingles increase in price about $10 - $15 a square every two weeks.

[RobC]

I haven't noticed much of a slowdown here in Northern Virginia. My local HD is the closest one to DC and is one of the smaller "urban" style HDs to boot. Always crowded, especially on weekends. I do trek out a bit further to go to a Lowe's and they are also usually doing a brisk business, but I confess, I'm only there on weekends.

I do need to make an HD run tomorrow AM to get some supply lines so I can finish up my bathroom project. I'll make a note to see how the commercial traffic is doing.

[stormdog74]

I was in the Sacramento County Building Inspection Department today and it was like a ghost town - absolutely no waiting and I had to go to a few windows. I was in and out in a half hour, which is a record for me.