What a surge in decks and paint sales in the midst of a pandemics says about economic recovery – Oklahoman.com

Added to that is a higher demand for cleaning supplies, security systems, safety gear, sidewalk chalk and activity kits for youngsters, said Randy Rusk, national spokesman for Do It Best, a cooperative of hardware, lumber, and building materials stores in 50 states and more than 50 countries.

But analysts and marketing experts in the home and hardware industry are cautious. They predict a mixed bag in spending through the end of this year, dragged down by little or no construction in some states and nagging uncertainties surrounding the economic toll from the pandemic.

Smaller, in-home projects have been the bright spot in the sector. During the past two months, as unprecedented restrictions sent workers home and consigned people to work in bedrooms and at kitchen tables, the home services industry saw consumers flip their attitudes about their surroundings.

At first they were scared. Then, they began looking around their homes and decided they needed to get on projects they'd put off for years, said Larry Janesky, a Connecticut-based contractor with 300 dealers and 700 employees refurbishing attics, basements and roofs across the U.S.

Basement waterproofing and refinishing projects took off in the past month or so because people realized they needed to upgrade space for a home office. Roofing also has shot up, Janesky said.

Before the outbreak, spending on home remodeling was expected to post annual growth of 3.9% by the first quarter of 2021. But the latest data rolling together actual and forecasted impacts of the economic shutdown have led to predictions of declines this year, with more of a drop off into 2021, according to Harvard Universitys Joint Center for Housing Studies.

The uncertainty has analysts offering a mixed forecast for what will happen in the category later in the year.

Whether confidence returns to undertake large projects could be dictated by the depth and duration of the economic and housing market decline, wrote Wedbush analysts led by Seth Basham in a note about Home Depot, MarketWatch reported earlier in May.

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What a surge in decks and paint sales in the midst of a pandemics says about economic recovery - Oklahoman.com