Keep Calm and Remodel On

HomeAdvisor recently released its Q3 Farnsworth Index, a survey of over 1,200 construction and remodeling professionals and a monitor of the home improvement industry, and the results show that despite a labor shortage and the rising cost of building materials, most contractors are seeing strong business and remain confident in the market. 

Here are a few of the report’s more telling results:

• On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being high, business owner confidence in the ability to get new business over the next six months is holding steady at 8.7, only 0.1 points down from earlier this year. 
• Seventy-nine percent of remodelers expect their company’s revenue to increase over the next year, a 1.5-percent hop over Q2. 
• Labor challenges remain high, as 56.9 percent said that they’ve experienced issues finding skilled labor over the last 12 months, a 2-percent increase from Q2. Furthermore, confidence in labor availability over the next year is slipping. Using the aforementioned 10-point scale, confidence slipped from 6.7 in Q1 to 6.5 in Q3. 
• Contractor confidence in how government policies will affect the industry have now gone from majority positive in Q1 to majority negative in Q3, falling 0.3 points to 4.8. The most pertinent issue in their eyes: taxes.