Home Depot (HD), Lowe’s (LOW): Home improvement pressures not expected to abate soon

Home improvement retailers Home Depot (NYSE: HD) and Lowe’s Companies, Inc. (NYSE: LOW) have been facing a challenging operating environment for a while now. The companies have been battling macroeconomic headwinds and housing market pressures that have impacted home improvement demand. The downside is these challenges are anticipated to continue in the near term, which has led to a muted outlook.

Slow demand

Demand for home improvement continues to be weighed down by a difficult economic environment and housing market headwinds. Inflationary pressures and interest rates continue to impact the housing market, and while difficulties in acquiring new homes are likely to push customers to renovate their existing homes, they have remained reluctant to take on large discretionary projects, opting instead for smaller and unavoidable tasks.

Both Home Depot and Lowe’s have been seeing softness in larger discretionary projects for the past couple of quarters compared to smaller and seasonal projects. While Home Depot’s big ticket comp transactions were positive 2.3% in the third quarter of 2025, this was mainly driven by its Pro customer segment.

Another factor that led to a slowdown in business was the lack of storm-related repairs and remodels, which had driven up sales considerably in the previous year. Both HD and LOW saw their comparable sales be pressured by the absence of storm-related demand during the third quarter of 2025.

Sales growth

Despite the muted demand, Home Depot and Lowe’s saw their sales increase in Q3 2025. HD’s net sales grew 2.8% to $41.4 billion while LOW’s total sales rose 3% to $20.8 billion compared to the prior-year period. Comparable sales were impacted by the lack of storm-related demand but inched up 0.2% for HD and 0.4% for LOW.

Pressures to persist

Home Depot and Lowe’s expect the pressures in the home improvement market to continue through the remainder of the year. This led the retailers to revise their outlook for comparable sales.

Home Depot now expects comparable sales growth to be slightly positive for the comparable 52-week period as opposed to its previous expectation for a growth of approx. 1%. Lowe’s forecasts comparable sales to be flat compared to the previous year, versus its earlier projection of flat to up 1%.

For fiscal year 2025, HD expects total sales to grow 3% while LOW expects total sales to be $86 billion.

Home Depot’s shares have fallen 10% over the past three months while Lowe’s stock has gained 3% for the same period.