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Many housing-market experts figured 2025 would be marked by demand for renovations.This was shaping up to be another strong year for big home-improvement projects. So far, that hasn’t happened.
Many housing-market experts figured 2025 would be marked by demand for renovations. High home prices and mortgage rates might weigh on sales, the story went, but that also meant people had plenty of home equity against which to borrow—and good reason to improve the places they’d already bought.
Executives at Home Depot (HD) aren’t seeing that so far, they said today, citing economic uncertainty that has people holding back on those projects amid a stubborn housing market and an unusually downbeat selling season.
“People are painting again and working in their yards and doing smaller projects but just have not engaged in the larger projects,” CEO Ted Decker said on a conference call, a transcript of which was made available by AlphaSense. (The company earlier today reported first-quarter sales that were better than expected and said it aimed to keep its pricing stable in a fast-moving trade environment.)
Home Depot estimates that there’s a cumulative shortfall of about $50 billion in home-improvement spending, and Decker expects things to pick up. More color on this could land tomorrow, when competitor Lowe's Cos. (LOW) is set to report results.
“We're very much looking forward to it as much as you are, when people tap their equity, gain the stronger macro confidence and engage in those bigger projects,” he said on the conference call with analysts.
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