Lowe’s is hurting too.

February 21, 2009 – 10:08 pm – No Comment

The housing market has been feeling a pinch for awhile now. The home improvement stores are also feeling the problems associated with a decrease in the housing market and new home construction as well as renovations.

To help with the decrease in profits, Lowe’s will be opening fewer stores in 2009.

From the AP:

The nation’s second largest home improvement chain said consumers continued to shy away from big-ticket items such as new flooring, appliances and cabinetry, particularly as they try to shore up their savings and find it more difficult to tap into home equity lines of credit.

Sales of discretionary categories — particularly for items such as home organization, plumbing, lighting, and windows and walls categories — fell to decade lows.

More than 2 million households received foreclosure filings last year and some economists estimate as many as one in four homeowners owe more money on their mortgages than their properties are worth. President Barack Obama has proposed a $75 billion plan to curb foreclosures and ease the housing slump that helped ignite the recession.

“Anytime you can put the consumer in better financial shape, by having more disposable income in their pockets, lessening their debt burden … all those things help,” Lowe’s Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Niblock said Friday. “Is what you’re seeing going to be enough to cause a dramatic turnaround in the environment? No, we don’t think so. It just makes the environment less bad.”

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