HOME LIFE: Building Home
Value with the Down Market
With the mortgage industry in turmoil, home value continues to spiral downwards, seemingly without end. Homeowners, especially those looking to refinance will be holding onto their real estate assets until the trend reverses itself.
On the other end, the home improvement industry is projected to be a $170 billion market in 2008, according to Newsweek. With home value in a free fall, Americans are more willing to renovate their homes than sell at a loss.
Amongst the most popular home renovation trends is the conversion of one’s backyard into an “Outdoor Living Space” - complete with a hearth, BBQ Island and palatial patio pillars. The hearth/fire pit, or outdoor masonry fireplace, has emerged as the center piece to these projects because it can add a luxurious ambiance and higher resale value at a relatively affordable budget.
Generally, builders and designers shy away from masonry fireplaces due to their weight and the requirement of highly skilled masons. MFI, a Southern California fireplace system manufacturer offers a prefab masonry firebox that is fueling a new market segment for the hearth industry. Selling under the brand Mason-Lite, the factory built MFI fireboxes provide consistent quality at half the weight and cost compared to traditional masonry fireplaces.
Due to its light weight, Mason-Lite fireplaces are not only easier to handle for outdoor construction, but are a dream for multi-story installations - requiring minimum, and in some cases, no special structural reinforcement. For landscape and home improvement design professionals and contractors, this could mean, selling an average of 4 to 6 fireplaces to a single homeowner. For the masons, using prefab fireboxes translates to less installers and heavy lifting, as well as replicable quality assurance with faster turnaround time at job sites.
Whether you are a building industry professional trying to seize a share of the $170 billion home improvement bonanza, or a homeowner looking to add value to your property in the down market, a Mason-Lite fireplace is definitely something that deserves your attention.
