PEORIA (25News Now) – According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, consumer prices are up 3.1% over last year, impacting the cost of home improvement projects. Despite that increase, business owners are not finding it hard to locate customers.
The Peoria Civic Center held its annual spring Home Show this weekend for homeowners to find experts to complete improvement projects.
C.T. Gabbert Remodeling and Construction president Chuck Gabbert says the price for home improvements has increased, but he’s seen a steady flow of customers.
“Guys that work in the trades now are getting paid more, the materials are more, it just costs more to do business,” said Gabbert. “[Homeowners] are going all out because they’re staying in the home; the price of existing homes has gone up a lot, and then the price of building a new house is really expensive, so they’re staying where they’re at.”
Not only are people staying in the same house, but Stuber Land Design owner Dale Stuber has noticed people are just staying at home in general.
“I think, especially since the whole COVID thing happened, more people are spending more time at their homes,” Stuber said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen with the economy nobody does, but I do think that people are going to spend more and more time in their own properties, at their own homes; our society is changing.”
He adds that he sees some homeowners looking for improvements when they move in, but usually, it’s five to 10 years later.
“Financially, they’re catching up a little bit, so oftentimes it’s five or ten or even 20 years later into a home that they’re all of a sudden doing something really exciting outdoors,” Stuber said.
Stuber says interest rates are affecting them, but because they are more of a luxury business, he doesn’t find that burden on every job.
“I think there’s a number of people out there that have some expendable income that they can put into something like their backyard or their front yard, just their property in general, anything outdoors,” said Stuber.
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