Signs of economic recovery evident at annual home show

Valorie Long was a VIP at the Show Me Center on Saturday afternoon.

The McClure, Ill., woman, is looking to build, and that's sweet music to the area building trades beleaguered by a prolonged housing-sector slump.

Long was at the Southeast Missouri Home Builder's Association's 31st annual Home and Garden Show looking for ideas for the ranch-style home she plans to build this summer.

"We do a lot of building ourself, and the things we can't do, this gives us a great idea of who to call," she said. "It's easier to come to the show and mosey around and see what's available. It's all here."

Long was among a steady stream of people checking out the display booths of the 96 home and garden vendors, selling everything from furnaces to lawn mowers and meat smokers. While organizers couldn't provide a headcount mid-Saturday, the show's annual average attendance is around 6,000 people. Friday night reportedly was slower, but attendance remained steady throughout much of Saturday, said Ann Brookman, committee chairwoman of the home and garden show.

Vendors certainly were back in full force this year, Brookman said, after the show failed to sell all of its floor-level booths last year amid a general economic malaise weakened by an anemic housing sector.

"This year, people were knocking on our door from the minute the contracts went out -- thank God," Brookman said.

That's a street-level indicator of what many in the region's building trades say is real recovery.

"The black cloud has moved off to a distance," Brookman said. "Not a far distance yet, but it's a difference."

The hope is that the plummeting U.S. building industry hit bottom in 2010. The jury still is out. Last year, the value of construction was $814 million, a 10.3 percent decline from 2009, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. It marked the fourth straight year of declining construction output in the United States, more than 20 percent lower than the high mark of $1.198 trillion during the housing boom in 2006, according to the KHL Group, the leading supplier of international construction information in the world.

There have been signs of a turnaround in building and remodeling, as consumers begin to regain confidence in home improvement and home-building.

Last week, Lowe's reported profits rose 39 percent, in its most recent quarter, ended Jan. 28. Net sales increased 3.1 percent to $10.5 billion. Home Depot earlier reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit climbed 72 percent from year-earlier levels on stronger sales.

Daniel Carter, of Centralia, Ill.-based Modern Bath Solutions, is among the subcontractors stationed at this year's home and garden show. He said business began picking up after the first of the year after a challenging 2010. But the uptick, he said, is on the home-improvement side.

"The new homes, they're not building as many, so people are staying in their homes longer, so they're willing to do more home improvement," Carter said. "We're going to be busy this summer."

mkittle@semissourian.com

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