Housing-related businesses rebounding

Although many in the Valley still suffer from the repercussions of the housing crisis, some Maricopa business owners in housing-related industries said business finally is looking up.

Dan Dawn, owner of Arroyo Vista Landscape & Design, described business as “pretty solid and steady for the last year and a half.”

Dawn’s landscaping business opened in 2006 and, although he does jobs throughout the Phoenix area, the majority of his clients are in Maricopa.

“I think in this last year it’s been an improvement,” Dawn said. “I think the media is pretty doom and gloom, but I see something different. I see people taking pride in their homes again and spending money.”

That jibes with what Russ Byers, co-owner of Arizona Contract Painting, said about the business he owns with his brother, Rob: “We’re probably the busiest we’ve been in the last two years, and I’m not speaking about the business in general, but for Maricopa. I think things have been improving since last summer. We’ve definitely had more business and more consistent business.”

Pat Weaver, who owns Selections Shutters and Blinds, said he is cautiously optimistic.

“Last year was a good year, better than the year before,” Weaver said. “It seems like the consumer confidence is moving up and people are more willing and able to spend money.”

Weaver opened his business, which installs custom window coverings, in August 2005. The first two years of business were very good — peaking in 2006 — and coincided with the Maricopa housing boom.

But when new home construction dwindled, so did Weaver’s business.

For all three businesses, the improvement of the last few months is coming after a protracted period of struggle with 2009 the low point.
“We’ve had to cut back and really cut costs,” Dawn, who employs four people, said of that year.

“From the top to bottom, my business dropped over 40 percent,” Weaver said. “My goal that year was just to have the lights go on every day.”