Home improvement holds its own in July

The mega home improvement category of “building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers” showed a 2.8% sales gain in July, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That’s better than the growth rate for the U.S retail and food services -- up 2.4% from July of last year.

The home improvement industry also slightly outgrew the retail industry as a whole on a month-to-month basis -- a 0.7% gain versus a 0.6% gain.

Adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, total retail and food services sales for July were $446.5 billion. Adjusted sales for businesses in NAICS code 444 (building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers) reached an estimated $27.466 billion.

Retail types that showed the biggest year-over-year gains were motor vehicle and parts dealers (up 6.9%), sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores (up 6.4%), furniture and home furnishings stores (up 6.1%), and nonstore retailers (up 6.0%).