The home improvement sector was among the few bright spots in the US economy in 2020. According to the research data analyzed and published by ComprarAcciones.com, product sales in the space rose by 8.7% year-over-year (YoY) to $440 billion.

Prior economic downturns have not been as kind to the market. During the 2008/2009 financial crisis, the market suffered a three-year decline.

Based on a report by Harvard University, annual spending on home renovation and repair is set to soar by 4.1% in Q1 2021. But by Q3 2021, growth is projected to taper off to 1.7%.

Lowe’s Net Sales Rose by 28% to $20.31 Billion, Ace Hardware’s Up by 39.2% to $2.1 Billion

The top three home improvement chains in the US sold goods worth a cumulative $54.67 billion in Q4 2020. Comparatively, their collective sales for Q4 2019 totaled $41.88 billion.

Home Depot, the largest of the three, saw sales surge by 25% from $25.78 billion in Q4 2019 to $32.26 billion in Q4 2020. Overall, its same-store sales rose by 24.5% against an expected 19.2% according to Street Account. Its net income rose to $2.86 billion or $2.56 per share, higher than Refinitiv’s estimated $2.62 per share. Additionally, digital sales surged by 83% in the quarter and 86% for the full-year. For the whole of 2020, net sales rose by 20% to $132.1 billion.

Lowe’s, which ranks second, had a 28.2% increase in Q4 2020 same-store sales to $20.31 billion against an expected $19.48 billion. Its net income nearly doubled from $509 million to $978 million and online sales shot up by 121%. For the full year, its net sales totaled $89.6 billion.

On the other hand, Ace Hardware posted a 39.2% increase in revenue to $2.1 billion in Q4 2020. Its net income rose to $43.1 million as same-store sales in the US jumped by 28.7%. Full-year 2020 revenue rose by 27.9% to $7.8 billion, up from $6.1 billion in 2019. Net income rose by 125.7% to 316.9 million and online sales shot up by 272%.