I have always been in the camp of those who felt that remodeling and improving my home shouldn’t be considered an investment. However, given the performance of the stock market for the better part of this decade and even with home prices falling in much of the country as they have, I am starting to re-think how I feel about my home as an investment. Among other things, Remodeling magazine’s annual cost vs. value report factored in to my decision.

I know Warren Buffet may disagree with this but for us stock pickers with track records a notch above pathetic, putting money in to your home might just be the smartest thing one can do. Investments in many cases (can be) bought and sold with such regularity that placing one’s primary residence in to that category has been hard for me to do. But with the economy teetering on the brink the past six months, treating and managing my home as an investment is starting to look better and better each day.

Home prices have declined in my area much as they have in the rest of the country. But with the poor economy taking it’s toll on each and every one of us I find that I see more of my neighbors because they are always in the yard working, painting, repairing, and driving back and forth to the hardware store to purchase whatever items they forgot on the last trip. When asked why they are spending more time now than ever improving their home, most of my neighbors reply that they would rather put their money in to something they control rather than in to the financial markets where they have no control over the everyday gyrations in share values.

Remodeling Magazine’s 2008-2009 Cost vs. Value report shows that while home improvement projects are down for the period measured, property owners are still finding that the home is a great place to “invest” some of one’s savings and as a result they are tackling minor projects with many of those centering around the kitchen or the bath. The cost vs. value report shows that a minor kitchen remodel can re coup as much as 79.5% of the cost while a minor bathroom remodel is close to 75%. Many of the western states in the US show the ability to re coup more than 90% of the cost of the same projects due to higher resale values in this part of the country.

We offer a number of affordable products that are well designed and suited for kitchen and bath upgrades. Products such as our Solana Glass Subway tile, our Cardiff crackle subway tile, and many of our glass mosaic tile products such as our Coastal Blends or our Milano blends glass mosaic tile collections are all nice choices for upgrading one’s home.

To take advantage of deals and savings when searching for tile for your home stay in touch with us through our emails or by reading this blog. We will email specials to those on our email list from time to time and we will also post the discounts on our blog on the first day of the sales event. As readers of our blog know we focus on issues related to home improvement topics, new products for the home, the real estate market, and of course anything and everything relating to the world of tile.

This month and for the next five days through Tuesday August 18th we will be offering FREE SHIPPING on our Coastal Blends glass mosaic tiles in all ten colors. Any order of $125.00 or more qualifies and orders must be received by midnight Tuesday. Use code COASTAL upon checkout to take advantage of this offer.

Read some of the recent posts on our Blog about affordable kitchen and bathroom upgrades and you will see that a little money invested can go a long way towards making a big improvement in any home.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 14th, 2009 at 5:00 am and is filed under Bathroom Design, Kitchen Design ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.