Inflation has surged 7.5% in the last year—the biggest gain since 1982, the Labor Department reported Thursday—and the rise in consumer costs is hitting remodeling contractors and builders hard. That’s because prices for household furnishings are climbing faster than most other goods, climbing 1.6% month over month in January and 9.3% annually, according to the Labor Department.
CNBC reports the following household item prices are surging year over year:
- Living room/kitchen/dining room furniture: up 19.9%
- Furniture/bedding: up 17%
- Window coverings: up 16.2%
- Bedroom furniture: up 13.7%
- Appliances: up 8.5%
- Floor coverings: up 7.2%
- Clocks, lamps, and decorative items: 6.3% higher
“With an increased focus on the home due to the pandemic, home prices rising to the highest on record (nearly 20% year over year), and materials prices in some cases 400% higher or more than their pre-pandemic levels, the major growth in total consumer spending on home improvement should not come as a surprise,” Mischa Fisher, chief economist at Angi, a home remodeling website, noted in a recent report.