HI Retail Sales +0.1% MoM, +2.2% YoY

Research evidence excerpt

HI Retail Sales +0.1% MoM, +2.2% YoY

Homebuilders & Building Products

May 14, 2026

HI Retail Sales +0.1% MoM, +2.2% YoY Exhibit 1 - Retail Sales

Statistics

The Wolfe Byte Home Improvement

April Home Improvement Retail Sales slightly underperformed seasonality, April 2026 Spend $ 41,761

although April's 2-year stack was the strongest since August 2023, likely driven March% MoM2026 $ 41,725+0.1%

by pricing. % YoY +2.2%

% vs April 2024 +4.6%

Source: Wolfe Research, Census

April Home Improvement Retail Sales increased +0.1% MoM and increased +2.2%

Exhibit 2 - HI Sales SinceYoY. Sales typically improve +0.2% on average historically. April marks the fifth Feb 2021

straight month of YoY increases on easy comps while recent figures are likely 44000 35%

42000 25%benefitting from tariff-related pricing. While pricing implies volumes are likely still 43000 30%

20%

40000 15%down YoY overall, the key takeaway for us is that 2-year stacked growth improved 39000

5%to 4.5% from 1.5% on average over the past six months, and was the strongest 3800037000 10%

36000 0%

35000 -5%since August 2023. Appreciating the acceleration may be driven by pricing related 34000 -10%

to cost headwinds, demand appears to at least be holding steady. The HI Retail Apr-21 Sep-21 Feb-22 Jul-22 Dec-22 May-23 Oct-23 Mar-24 Aug-24 Jan-25 Jun-25 Nov-25 Apr-26

HI Spend YoY % Change

Sales data is clearly in nominal terms, which could support figures moving forward

if incremental oil-driven pricing flows through at the homecenters. Notably, HI Source: Wolfe Research, Census

Retail Sales as a percentage of total retail sales remains near record-low levels at Exhibit 3 - Retail Sales

5.52% versus the long-term ~6.5% average, indicating potential upside if that share MoM % Change Trends

normalizes.