We are pleased to announce that Ray Sola, founder of Cloudland, was recently re-elected as Vice President of the New England PDCA Council, just in time for the Northeast’s recovering construction market!

The New England Council, Inc. PDCA is the recognized voice of the painting, wall covering and decorating service industry of the Northeast. They remain the contractor’s source for standards and education and the customer’s choice for quality and professionalism.

NEC is more than 120 members strong, with active chapters throughout the region. Their parent organization, the Painting and Decorator Contractors of America [PDCA,] was founded in 1884 and currently has over 2000 members nationwide.

According to the IBIS World’s August 2012 market research report on the U.S. painting industry, a recovering construction market is underway and will soon be driving a demand for contractors.

The next five years looks much rosier [good color choice!] than the last, especially for painters. There is an economic rebound happening in the housing market sector, after a half decade of rough times. Jed Kolko, Trulia’s Chief Economist, writes in Forbes magazine that “the housing market is now 47% of the way back to normal–compared with 25% in October 2011.”

Although the Northeast is recovering more slowly than say, San Francisco and Houston, Kolko names Peabody, Massachusetts and the surrounding metro Boston area as one of the Top Ten Healthy Housing Markets in the country. We like to think Connecticut cannot be far behind!

Ray, who is just now beginning his second term as Vice President, has been through many tough economic fluctuations  since he started his career in the home improvement world over 30 years ago.

“I’m normally an optimistic person,” says Ray “but now I am particularly optimistic about the painting business. I talk to many people in my work and there is a sense that a new kind of stability is taking shape in the economy. Consumer confidence is up and to me that is the real pulse of the country. I think people have the sense that finally, things are turning around.”