home improvement loan Archives

How to accomplish home improvement projects in a shaky economy

10/12/2025 Kartika

Spring is kickoff season for many kitchen remodels, bathroom updates and deck repairs, but recent economic turmoil may have homeowners questioning their home improvement plans.

Spending on home renovations is expected to slow this year because of factors such as declining home sales and values, rising interest rates, continuing inflation and rumblings of a coming recession, says Abbe Will, senior research associate with Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

As economic growth slows down, planning and prioritizing will be key to remodeling confidently. Here are five tips to help you remodel in an uncertain economy.

Start with an emergency fund

Even when the economy is doing well, it’s ideal to have an emergency fund before starting a remodel, says Eric Maldonado, a certified financial planner based in San Luis Obispo, California.

“What you’re trying to avoid is starting with nothing saved, taking out debt to afford these things and

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BBB: Home sweet home improvement tips for National Homeownership Month | business

02/12/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

June is National Home Ownership Month. If you’re a home owner, at some point you’re probably going to have some kind of home improvement project that you’re not going to be able to do by yourself.

“Choosing the wrong contractor can make the difference between a successful home renovation and a disaster,” said Mechele Agbayani Mills, President and CEO of BBB Central East Texas. “So do your research, get several bids, and pay in installments to make sure you choose the right one.”

BBB provides the following guidelines on selecting a trusted home improvement service.

Solicit at least three bids from prospective contractors based on the same specifications, materials, labor and time needed to complete the project. Discuss bids in detail with each contractor, making sure you understand the reasons for any variations in the prices. Remember not to make a decision based solely on the lowest bid. Cost differences

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Police warn shoppers of scam at home improvement stores

30/10/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

TEXARKANA, Texas –A recent scam investigated by police is one that predominately targets senior adults.

Texarkana Texas Police recently arrested a man who has allegedly operated a number of schemes at local stores. He has been charged with theft and exploitation of the elderly.

A man shopping at Lowe’s in Texarkana, Texas, earlier this month was approached by the suspect. The suspect allegedly struck up a conversation with the older customer and offered to sell him a lawn mower for $1,000, explaining that he was a driver for Home Depot and that someone who had ordered the mower had died and that he had been authorized to sell it .

The customer offered the suspect $500 for the equipment and drove himself and the man to a nearby Walmart to get cash from an ATM. The two then returned to Home Depot where the suspect took the money as the

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Tackling a home remodel in an uncertain economy

25/10/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

Spring is kickoff season for many kitchen remodels, bathroom updates and deck repairs, but recent economic turmoil may have homeowners questioning their home improvement plans.

As economic growth slows down, planning and prioritizing will be key to remodeling confidently. Here are five tips to help you remodel in an uncertain economy.

Even when the economy is doing well, it’s ideal to have an emergency fund before starting a remodel, says Eric Maldonado, a certified financial planner based in San Luis Obispo, California.

“What you’re trying to avoid is starting with nothing saved, taking out debt to afford these things and not really providing yourself with

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Lowe’s annual cuts forecasts as home improvement demand falters

17/10/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

By Deborah Mary Sophia

(Reuters) -Lowe’s Cos Inc cut its annual sales and profit forecasts on Tuesday, joining larger rival Home Depot in highlighting wanting demand for home improvement tools with sticky inflation forcing consumers to cut back on discretionary spending.

Still, the shares reversed premarket losses and were up 2% in morning trading. Analysts said the results were not as bad as feared after Home Depot’s gloomy outlook last week.

A shift in spending to services, falling lumber prices and a damp start to the Spring season also squeezed sales against the backdrop of inflation-wary consumers pausing larger projects and scouting for cheaper options even for small-scale renovations.

Some customers were ditching preferred brands for more affordable labels while others were picking substitutes of lower quality or moving to cheaper countertops, said Bill Darcy, CEO of trade group the National Kitchen & Bath Association.

Lowe’s forecast cut was smaller

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Home Depot’s lackluster Q1 shows that the remodeling boom is over

02/09/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

Interest in big home improvement projects is waning. That’s one takeaway from Home Depot’s uninspired first-quarter results.

“The size of the projects are getting a bit smaller,” Home Depot (HD) CEO Ted Decker told analysts on the company’s first quarter earnings call Monday.

“It could be that the project [are] being deferred or it could be that the project is being broken up into chunks,” Decker said. “Rather than do an entire room or an entire basement, you start working it in smaller chunks and that clearly impacts items per basket in overall activity. “

On a yearly basis, customer transactions slid 4.8%, but came in better than Wall Street’s call for a 5.36% drop. Customers also spent less per ticket than anticipated, recording a 0.2% gain against expectations of a 2.63% boost in average ticket sizes.

Big-ticket transactions, or those over $1,000, were down 6.5% compared with the first

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Is Floor & Decor Holdings Inc (FND) a Winner in the Home Improvement Retail Industry?

03/08/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

News Home

Monday, May 08, 2023 06:27 AM | Investors Observer Analysts

Mentioned in this article

Is Floor & Decor Holdings Inc (FND) a Winner in the Home Improvement Retail Industry?

Floor & Decor Holdings Inc (FND) is the highest overall rated company in the Home Improvement Retail industry with an overall score of 73. FND is up 27.43% so far this year after the company closed yesterday at $92.44. The overall score measures the company’s performance based-off both short and long term indicators and means that FND scores better than 73% of the overall market.

FND has an Overall Score of 73. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on FND!

Floor & Decor Holdings Inc. is a strong performer in the Home Improvement Retail industry, which has an average overall score of 44. This means that, on average, the stocks in this industry score higher than 44% of the stock market. See InvestorsObserver’s Sentiment Score for

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Stettler home improvement program entering final stages of approvals

26/07/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

A new program which will allow Stettler residents to make home improvements and pay for the renovations over time on their taxes is another step closer to reality after the May 2 council meeting.

Following a public hearing during the council meeting, where no submissions were received or presented either for or against the proposed programme, the final two readings of the bylaw were read.

The program, overseen by Alberta Municipalities but administered by the municipality, will allow residents of the community to apply to have proposed renovation work done on homes, such as replacing furnaces, windows, or other high-cost repairs that could be made to make a home more energy efficient paid for upfront by municipal affairs, then have things repaid over 25 as part of the annual tax levy.

To qualify for the program, homeowners will be required to undergo an energy audit before the renovations and again

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Ontario Smart Energy and VaultPay Partner to Drive Innovation in Smart Energy Market.

24/07/2025 Kartika

Home Improvement

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / May 8, 2023 / Ontario Smart Energy (OSE), a leading provider of sustainable energy solutions, has announced that it has secured lending from VaultPay, a leading financial lender for home improvement. The financing will enable OSE to accelerate its clean energy projects and expand its footprint in the renewable energy market.

Ontario Smart Energy, Monday, May 8, 2023, Press release picture

OSE is committed to developing sustainable energy solutions that reduce carbon emissions and support the transition to a low-carbon economy. The company specializes in providing turnkey solutions for solar power, battery storage, and energy efficiency projects. OSE’s projects help residential communities reduce their energy costs, improve their energy efficiency, and contribute to a more sustainable future.

The partnership with VaultPay will allow Ontario Smart Energy to offer even more financing options to its customers. VaultPay is a leading financial lender for home improvement projects,

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jeanne mckay watercolors and a giveaway

09/09/2024 Kartika

Home Improvement

Since the beginning of my blogging days, I’ve been fortunate to meet and make friends with some very talented and generous people. I was lucky to start blogging at a time when readers could sign up to follow their preferred blogs and before the days of the big newsletter blasts. There was more of an intimacy to the process, and the blogs were read differently, as our audience popped around to visit each of their favorite blogs each day. This is one of the big things about blogging, the way that it draws people together.

Between women bloggers there has always been a special camaraderie. We are generally very generous in our support of each other’s projects, and we love to encourage each other to go further.

One of those precious links that grew from blogging is with my friend Jeanne McKay Hartmann. Jeanne is from Seattle but travels to

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