As energy prices rise, Americans are reportedly finding it harder to repair their homes.
The cost of home repairs/renovations climbed steadily last month as fuel prices and interest rates continued climbing, Bloomberg News reported Friday (Nov. 6).
In the three months through June, those prices increased at the fastest quarterly rate since October 2024, the report said, citing insurance data analytics provider Verisk.
Repair bills could get even steeper as companies selling things like paint, appliances and plumbing fixtures increase their prices to cover the rising costs of higher materials and shipping, Bloomberg added. This is after these companies raised prices due to tariffs in 2025.
“Just to put it in perspective, this quarter was the most significant inflationary period that we’ve experienced since mid-2022,” Armstrong World Industries CEO Mark Hershey said on an earnings call, per Bloomberg.
The wall-and-ceiling manufacturer increased prices in November, explaining its freight costs had jumped about 20% compared to a year earlier.
The report added that paint producer Sherwin-Williams and HVAC manufacturer Carrier Global have raised their prices, while Whirlpool is expected to increase prices on its appliances in the U.S. by 7% next month.
“We will have meaningful inflation to address in 2027,” Stanley Black & Decker Chief Financial Officer Patrick Hallinan said on an earnings call. “We plan to do so with productivity measures and pricing actions, with a price increase likely around the turn of the year.”
Writing about the home repair space earlier this year, PYMNTS noted that the housing market needs only to stop moving—rather than collapsing—to reshape the industry. Traditionally, housing turnover has been an unusually strong driver of home-improvement spending.
“Buying or selling a house can trigger a cascade of projects: new flooring, remodeled kitchens, fresh paint, upgraded bathrooms and other discretionary improvements,” the report said. “That engine is sputtering. High mortgage rates have created a lock-in effect for homeowners sitting on substantially cheaper loans, suppressing transactions and, with them, many of the large renovation projects that accompany a move.”
Meanwhile, October research by PYMNTS Intelligence shows that 25.5% of consumers say that now is a good time to make a major household purchase, with another 20% saying they had postponed a major purchase in the past 90 days, up from 18.3% surveyed in August.
