Is it a Good Time to Remodel Your Home?
How are you going to pay for the renovations?
Some renovations are costlier than others. If you're looking at a low-cost project, without making much of a dent in your savings, you can easily pay in cash, then there's no reason to put it off because of the current health crisis. Actually, now is actually a good time to embark on a time-consuming renovation project, considering that in an effort to self-isolate, you are presumably trapped in your home anyway.
You may want, on the other hand, to put off a bigger, more costly renovation. For one thing, if you're planning to pay for the project with cash, it might not be the best move right now to part with a big chunk of it.
It's too soon to say how much COVID-19 is going to affect the economy, but if a recession hits, jobs, including yours, may be compromised. You'll need all the money you can get to pay your bills at that stage when you're looking for jobs. So, before you remove a large portion of your savings, think about whether you're better off postponing another season for that project.
Along these lines, you might want to reconsider this if you intend to pay for your upcoming renovation by borrowing money, whether by credit cards, a personal loan, or a home equity loan or line of credit. The last thing you'll want is another monthly loan payment to contend with while you're struggling to pay for necessities, if your career ever becomes a COVID-19 casualty. As such, holding off, waiting for things to settle, and then contemplating parting with that money might pay.
For you, what's the right move?
If you have tons of money in savings and can finance your renovation project while still leaving yourself in the bank with living expenses worth at least six months, then you will be OK to move on. Otherwise, you may consider holding off, given that your quality of life would not be adversely impacted by doing so.
For starters, if you're looking for a perfectly usable kitchen to be torn down in favor of an upgraded one, that's probably something that can wait. But if you want to upgrade a heating and cooling system that doesn't work very well, it could make home life difficult to postpone the project—especially at a time when you're stuck in the house. One last thing: With the economy possibly taking a turn for the worse, in the not-so-distant future, there is a risk that home prices will begin to decrease. If you are planning to renovate and sell shortly after the fact, keep that in mind, because you will not recover your money the way you expect it to.