US Households Face Higher Costs for Home Repairs

Rising energy costs are making it harder for many Americans to fix up their homes.

Bloomberg News reported that the price of home repairs and renovations rose steadily in the latest month as fuel costs and interest rates kept climbing.

Over the three months through June, those prices posted their fastest quarterly increase since October 2024, according to the report, which cited data from insurance analytics firm Verisk.

The pressure may continue to build as companies that sell paint, appliances and plumbing fixtures lift prices to offset higher material and shipping expenses. Bloomberg said those businesses had already raised prices because of 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, according to Bloomberg.

The wall-and-ceiling maker raised prices in November after saying freight costs had increased by about 20% from a year earlier.

The report also said Sherwin-Williams and Carrier Global have increased prices, while Whirlpool is expected to raise U.S. appliance prices by 7% next month.

Stanley Black & Decker Chief Financial Officer Patrick Hallinan said on an earnings call, “We will have meaningful inflation to address in 2027. We plan to do so with productivity measures and pricing actions, with a price increase likely around the turn of the year.”

Earlier this year, PYMNTS argued that the housing market does not need to collapse to reshape the home-improvement sector; it only needs to stop moving. In normal times, home turnover is a major driver of spending on improvements.

“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, PYMNTS Intelligence research found that 25.5% of consumers believe now is a good time for a major household purchase, while another 20% said they had delayed a major purchase in the previous 90 days, up from 18.3% in the earlier survey.