Consumers spent like crazy at Home Depot during 2020

The housing market was one of the few bright spots for the U.S. economy as it completed nearly a year of closing economic activities. Home Depot became one of its leading suppliers, accumulating $ 132 billion in sales during 2020, An unprecedented figure.

Sales in The Home Depot’s fourth fiscal quarter rose 25%, while the home improvement product chain continues to meet demand from Americans stranded at home by the pandemic and students taking classes remotely . Many families concluded that larger homes, or at least different homes, should be the answer to 2020, which raised house prices through the clouds, making the real estate market look resilient.

On Tuesday, the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller index, which controls home prices in 20 U.S. cities, rose 10.1% in December, compared to the same month last year . This surpassed the 9.2% jump from the previous month and all other months almost seven years earlier.

While Home Depot was not the only supplier to meet the demand for hammers, paint or appliances that accompanied the boom in the housing sector, the total volume of goods it sold this year was staggering.

Trying to put this volume in context, Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData, calculated that by 2020 the equivalent per person in the United States spent $ 402 on Home Depot.

“It’s easy to see Home Depot figures and attribute its success to the pandemic,” Saunders said Tuesday. “However, maintaining three-quarters of growth above 20% is extremely difficult in terms of the pressure it exerts on the entire operation, from supply chains to stores.”

The chain also increased its quarterly dividend by 10% to $ 1.65 per share. Revenue between October and December rose to $ 32.26 billion from $ 25.78 billion in the same quarter last year. The figure exceeded the expectations of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research, who predicted $ 30.66 billion.

Sales at chain stores around the world that have been open for at least a year – a key indicator of the health of retail companies – rose 24.5%. As for stores in the United States, the figure increased by 25%.