Is This Any Wonder? Home Renovation Cost vs. Value Dropping

Remodeling Online's annual Cost vs. Value Report 2008-2009 is out. The numbers, while sickening, are hardly startling.

A quick visual scan down the list shows that every category gets a nice, fat red arrow (indicating that it has declined since 2007). Only 3 categories have a "green" uptick: composite deck, bathroom remodeling, and vinyl siding replacement.

Bath and siding categories are not surprising, because they have always been solid. But composite deck? That one puzzles me. Then...I drill farther down and find out that composite deck wasn't even a category in 2007. So, of course that's a real increase from 0.00% in 2007 to 63.2% (cost recouped) in 2008-2009!