Bay Area Home Remodeling Picks up as Economy Mends

In another sign of an improving economy, residential remodeling is picking up in the Bay Area after several lean years, helped along by homeowners who are deciding to fix up places they can't sell because of the housing crunch.

"There is an awakening," said Rick Evans of Bauman Builders in San Jose. Last year "was like a switch that flipped."

Fueling the upward trend is growing confidence in job stability and a booming tech stock market that helps pay for new kitchens, bathrooms and landscaping. Few homeowners are borrowing for the work, builders say.

"It's all cash, nobody's borrowing anything. It's savings or stock money," Evans said. He said his clients "are employed someplace in the tech sector --the eBays, the Googles, and I'm sure there's a whole boatload of Facebookpeople about to do the same thing."

The Bay Area and coastal cities up and down the state are having what is "among their better years in the last five," said Mike Winn of the California Building Industry Association.

Jennifer and Julien Schreyer are remodeling the kitchen of their Oakland home, paying cash from savings and investments for the job.

"The economy is getting a little bit more stable, we are feeling a little more secure, and the stock market is going up a little so we could sell some stock," said Jennifer Schreyer, a real estate agent whose husband works for Pixar. "The economy had a lot to do with it."

The Schreyers have been waiting for the right time to redo the kitchen of the home they bought seven years ago.

"It was a little scary to take those steps to do something substantial," Jennifer Schreyer said, but a new kitchen was a lifestyle essential. "I love to cook; my husband is French; our two boys were born in Paris, and they love to cook."

Jim Tibbs of HDR Remodeling in Berkeley, which is doing the Schreyers' kitchen, said some of his clients are remodeling instead of moving up. "People seem to be staying in their homes longer, opting for improving the home they're already in as opposed to selling and taking on a heavier mortgage at a larger home," he said.of Harrell Remodeling in Mountain View, which is doing the job. "I think people are giving themselves permission to take the leap. The uncertainty is starting to clear a little."

But a lot of homeowners are spending more cautiously than they were before the crash, said NAHB economist Stephen Melman. "The projects aren't quite as robust. They're looking for value versus the big-ticket projects during the boom."

"Instead of a whole new $150,000 kitchen, people will replace appliances and refurbish cabinets. They're more likely to do the bathroom than kitchen because it's less expensive," Melman said.

R&R Development of San Jose, which has seen business increase in the past few months, is starting on an outdoor kitchen for Donna Hecke's Almaden home in San Jose. Hecke and her husband, who works in high tech, have been remodeling their home a little bit at a time, saving up the money for each project. "We don't do anything until we have the money saved," she said.

Contact Pete Carey at 408-920-5419.