Homeowners are feeling especially stressed about home repairs
Home improvement retailer Lowe's (LOW) topped first quarter earnings results, while Home Depot (HD) competitor fell shy of quarterly estimates. This comes as homeowners are spending less on home repairs and DIY projects as they feel more stressed, stemming from economic uncertainties.
Angi Co-Founder Angie Hicks comes on Wealth for a conversation on why homeowners are delaying repairs and home renovation projects.
To watch more expert insights and analysis on the latest market action, check out more Wealth here.
Shares of Lowe's lower after reporting better than expected earnings and growing sales from professionals offsetting weakness in the DIY consumer.
Homeowners continue to spend less on big ticket items though amid broader economic uncertainty.
Angie's 2025.
State of home spending report found that 48% of homeowners are more stressed about home repairs than they were in January.
Joining me now, we've got Angie Hicks, Angie, co-founder.
Angie, we gotta ask you first and foremost, where is a lot of the stress coming from for homeowners?
I think quite honestly, when it comes to taking care of your home, it's for most of us our largest asset, and we tend to spend, you know, 1 to 2% of the value of the home on improvements and repairs each year.
So it really comes down to kind of budgeting and understanding what needs to be done around your house and how to best invest those dollars.
And so from what you're hearing, are there massive delays in In some of the DIY projects that homeowners would typically be doing.
Well, we did run a pulse survey to update our state of home spending in April and saw that 70% of homeowners said they had delayed a project.
But I think what you really need to understand here is what that, you know, actually means.
We also found that they're doing more maintenance, which is very common, it's a very common phenomena when we see an economic downturn or uncertainty, because what they want to do is not be surprised.
They don't want to be surprised by spending, so they're gonna make sure they're getting their.
Conditioner tuned up so it doesn't go out on the hottest day of the year, have their roof inspected so they don't have a leak.
So they become just much more conscientious about those day to day things, and they're gonna do less discretionary items, more non-discretionary.
So maybe we're not putting the swimming pool in this year, but we are still going to make sure that we're maintaining that house.
So you see some shifts going on there.
And quite honestly, some of those DIY projects.
Might fall in that discretionary bucket that they might choose to hold off on.
Yeah, we had a perfectly good blow up pool, uh, at one point when we were growing up.
So ultimately just go stand next to the hose for a little bit.
Yeah, exactly.
So as you think about some of the lower cost alternatives to full remodels, because those are some of the projects that homeowners will take on if they're looking to maybe list their home within the next 12 months, what are you hearing on that from?
What's the pulse?
Yeah, so a lot of times, uh, kitchens and bathrooms are always at the top of the renovation list.
And, you know, a lot of times people think, are these tens of thousands of dollars of projects?
Yes, they can be.
Some can be very big projects, but there are a lot of things that you can do to make it even a more efficient, uh, project, economical and get functionality.
For example, in your kitchen, if you want Fresher look.
Consider updating the countertops.
If you can avoid updating the cabinets, that's where the big money is.
And do not change the footprint of your kitchen if you can, because you start moving plumbing and electrical, the cost starts to add up.
Same kind of thing in the bathroom.
Think about maybe changing out the flooring, updating a sink, but if you're going to redo your whole shower, it's gonna be more expensive.
Hm.
And so how are the pros on the other side of this responding to what homeowners are ultimately signaling to them the market, the, the professionals that are also working on these projects?
Absolutely.
So the professionals are working with homeowners more, talking to them about alternatives.
You know, I've, I've just had our Angie pro council meeting the other day.
We were talking a lot with pros about the different things that they see where they can kind of help homeowners make trade-offs and make good decisions about how to invest those dollars.
Uh, and, you know, and, and they're looking.
For sorry, then they also are looking at ways that they can aggregate projects together.
So you know if they offer both window cleaning and gutter cleaning, suggesting consumers get those done together so that it's one trip and it can be a more efficient economical job.
What is the decision tree for whether or not you should actually be starting a new project right now?
I mean, first you need to think about your budget.
Look at your budget, understand how much you have to spend.
And also, I always encourage homeowners to do a walk around your house and evaluate everything you see, because you might choose to do the wrong project, and we don't want people to do that.
You know, so you want to start with structural problems, then go to mechanical things, and then work your way to more cosmetic, kind of more upgrade type items.
So do that so that you know you're like, hey, my refrigerator's on its last leg.
Uh, you don't go and put a new deck on and then realize come August that you need to buy a refrigerator and you feel the crunch.
Angie, great to see you.
Thanks so much for taking the time as always.
Thank you.
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