Owning, upgrading one's house remain linked

Home Channel News, Oct 25, 1999

Over the past quarter century, home ownership has come to define the American way of life and psyche in terms of status, leisure time and the growing enthusiasm among homeowners to engage in home improvement activities.

Two-thirds of American adults are homeowners, the highest rate of ownership in the country's history. Between 1976 and 1998, the number of existing homes sold annually jumped by nearly 1.5 million units, to more than 5 million. The annualized rate of new-home sales, which in August 1999 hit 983,000 units, was 52 percent higher than the rate in 1976.

During that same period, retail sales of home improvement products by home centers and building supply outlets alone exploded to $118 billion last year from only around $15 billion in 1976. No more compelling evidence of the seemingly insatiable interest that Americans manifest towards upgrading their dwellings can be found than on Amazon.com, the online book seller which lists 2,546 titles related to "home improvement/construction." You can't watch TV now without channel surfing into a program espousing the virtues of everything from refinishing an antique chair to pouring concrete for a basement.

It has not been a coincidence that home ownership and home improvement have been riding on parallel tracks; in the early part of the century, the two were practically synonymous, as individuals were far more likely to build their own homes. That home improvement has become more recreational or discretionary, perhaps, does nothing to minimize the pioneer roots from which it sprang.

As a new century dawns, the urge to improve one's abode shows no signs of abating. There's been an uptick even among 25 to 34 year olds and 40 to 49 year olds -- the most likely first-time buyers and active fixer-uppers, respectively -- where home ownership had been in slipping until last year. Americans continue to tell pollsters in a unified voice that they still want the roof over their heads to be their possession and, if it leaks, their responsibility to fix.