HD Jun 2024 460.000 put

The housing market is discouraging big remodeling projects

Evident in home improvement retailer Lowe's (LOW) latest earnings, US home prices are becoming a growing deterrent to consumers wishing to invest in major renovation or remodeling projects. Will do-it-yourself (DIY) spending see a boost once mortgage rates begin to cool and the US housing market stabilizes? Abbe Will, the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies' Senior Research Associate & Associate Director of Remodeling Futures, joins Brad Smith on Wealth! to talk the interplay between the state of the US housing market and Americans' willingness to spend on home projects. "We do see that this softening in spending and home improvement and repair spending is partly driven by the ongoing weakness in the housing market... those high mortgage rates preventing folks from buying, from moving," Will explains. "And it is the weakness in existing home sales that is really a big factor in our forecast for softer spending this year. A lot of remodeling does tend to happen around the time of a sale." For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode of Wealth! This post was written by Luke Carberry Mogan.