Home Depot is the world's biggest DIY chain. Comparable sales fell sharply in 2007, before many on Wall Street cottoned on to the coming housing crash, and surged after the covid-19 pandemic. Since then sales have softened, with annual American sales falling or flat for three years. Customer transactions in 2025 were 9% below their 2021 peak. The company expects comparable sales to be unchanged in 2026, with a best-case scenario of 2% growth. Its share price has plunged by a quarter from a recent peak.
Sales of existing homes in America over the past two years have been the lowest in three decades, according to the National Association of Realtors. Mortgage rates remain near 6.5% on a new 30-year loan; more than half of outstanding mortgages still had rates of 4% or less, deterring homeowners from selling. Richard McPhail, the firm's finance chief, said: "We have never seen housing activity this slow for this long."
The firm is shifting from DIY customers towards builders, who now account for half of its revenue. It has spent over $30bn acquiring wholesale distributors that cater to professional contractors.
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