Bad Economy Not Affecting Home Improvement

The sour economy has ravaged the housing market nationally and led to three consecutive years of decline in home improvement spending, according to Fitch Ratings, a global rating agency. Garden City residents, however, continue to spend on remodeling projects, from basement makeovers to demolishing an existing house to put up a new one.

Mike Filippon, building department superintendent for the Village of Garden City, said there has been little dip in home improvement activity during this bad stretch.

In recent months, he said, there has been an increase in the number of applications submitted to the zoning board and the architectural design board, an indicator of future activity, with a kitchen expansion with a family room being the most common.

"We never saw much of a depression, maybe on the commercial side," Filippon said of home improvement activity. "What I would say is that maybe activity went down to normal – from very hectic to normal – as a result of the economy."

 Filippon said there has been an uptick in so-called "take downs," in which a homeowner (typically new) demolishes the existing structure and builds a new house on the premises.

Filippon said he does not have official numbers, but his experience over 27 years suggests that take downs are occurring more frequently compared with previous periods.

"What's curious is that people still do take downs in this economy," he said. "It is not an inexpensive thing to buy a house at market value, take it down, and then build a new house."

Filippon said that the depressed economy may have had a "modest impact" on home improvement projects in Garden City, but nothing approaching the national numbers. 

Filippon, who has been building department superintendent since 1983, said commercial activity has lagged in recent years but is now showing signs of vigor. He pointed to the progress being made at the former Texaco site at the corner of Seventh Street and Franklin Ave. After years of inactivity, the land is being turned into a mixed-use, three-story building.