North -American owners spend more on home renewal projects, achieving a wider deployment of consumers in the midst of a decrease in trust in the economy.
Sales in building materials and retailers of garden supply increased by 0.8% last month since March, the largest gain since 2022, and increased by 3.2% compared to April last year. At the same time, the detailed sales of the United States increased by 0.1%, a strong slowdown since March.
The trend occurs until the prices of home improvement products have increased.
The cost of residential repairs and remodeling increased by almost 4% in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to the Verisk Remodeling Index. The Strategic Data Analysis company traces the costs of more than 10,000 housing repair items, from appliances to windows.
Recent price increases seem to be promoted mainly by labor costs and do not seem to reflect the trade war in which the Trump administration is engaged in major North -American commercial partners such as Mexico, China and Canada.
“We have not seen panic buy contractors or investors concerned with impact tariffs on future costs, or the types driven by the strictest application of immigration policies,” said Greg Pyne, Verisk Property Price Vice President Importion, said in a report earlier this month.
Home Depot said on Tuesday that it does not expect to increase prices due to the rates, saying that it has spent years diversifying the sources of the goods on their shelves. However, executive Billy Bastek said that some products now on Home Depot shelves may disappear.
He also said that the chain is seeing fewer customers who take home improvement jobs such as kitchen and bathroom remodeling, because high interest rates can deter home owners to provide money to finance these projects.
Expenditure on home renewals has remained resistant, as high mortgage rates and diminished home prices have frozen many buyers. This has kept our sales at home in a fall, limiting the market for owners who want to sell.
Many owners also bought or refinance their mortgage when the average rate of a 30 -year home loan was less than 3% or 4% in the first couple of years of pandemic. This has made them reluctant to sell now, when the average rate is going through about 7%.
In response, many owners have chosen to invest in the development of their home instead of selling and taking on a much higher interest rate.
A deficiency in the construction of new housing more than a decade in the preparation has maintained the people who live in the older houses. Almost half of the homeowners occupied in the United States were built before 1980 and have an average age of 41, according to an analysis of the census data of the National Home Builders Association. This aging of the houses has helped to feed the need for repairs and improvements.
The Center for Studies of Housing Study of the University of Harvard, the most recent quarterly prospects of housing improvement projects that spending spending spending will continue to increase this year, despite economic uncertainty.
The expense of homeowners in housing maintenance and improvement projects increased by 0.5% in the first quarter from a year earlier to $ 513 million, according to the main indicator of the JCHS or Lira remodeling activity.
It also provides for annual increases from here that they will promote spending up to $ 526 billion in the first quarter of next year. This would represent a 2.5% increase over the first quarter of this year.
The increase in home prices and the signs of a solid economy has supported the prospects for a higher expense in improving the home, but this could change if the housing market and economic prospects worse, Carlos Martín, director of the JCHS Remodeling Future Program.
“Retail sales of building materials are strong, but we are seeing a significant fall in existing sales of houses and their average sales price since the last projection, both are the collaborators known in the improvements of the home,” said Martin. “The broader economic turbulence like a recession, a labor market worse or higher inflation, almost certainly our expectations.”
#Owners #reforms #repairs #midst #economic #uncertainty
Image Source : nypost.com