Tariffs, CPI Inflation, and Shifting Priorities in Home Improvement

This arti­cle pro­vid­ed by HIR­I’s Pre­mier Plat­inum Sum­mit Spon­sor, OpenBrand.

Con­sumers across the Home Improve­ment (HI) mar­ket are realign­ing how they shop in the face of mar­ket shifts, tar­iff con­cerns, price increas­es, and tighter budgets. 

In this blog, we con­nect find­ings from OpenBrand’s con­sumer track­ing sur­vey with real-time CPI trends to show how sen­ti­ment, price per­cep­tion, and pur­chase moti­va­tions are shift­ing. We then zoom in on Major Appli­ances and Out­door Pow­er Equip­ment (OPE) to see how pric­ing is evolv­ing with­in these key categories.

Tariff Impact on Home Improvement

Con­sumer pri­or­i­ties in Home Improve­ment skewed more toward need-based this year. 

The share of pur­chas­es dri­ven by ​‘broken/​failure replace­ment’ rose sig­nif­i­cant­ly YoY ris­ing +3.2 ppt in five years to 36.6%. While the last four years have seen sig­nif­i­cant increas­es YoY.

Con­sumers pur­chas­ing because an ​‘item was like­ly to break soon’ also saw YoY increas­es. Mean­while, dis­cre­tionary moti­va­tions soft­ened: rou­tine main­te­nance (-1.2 ppts), remod­el­ing ( – 1.1 ppts), redec­o­rat­ing ( – 1.0 ppts), and first-time pur­chas­es ( – 1.1 ppts).

House­holds are pri­or­i­tiz­ing func­tion and con­ti­nu­ity over upgrades.

How Tariffs Are Impacting Consumer Behavior & Pricing

Tar­iff head­lines are reshap­ing tim­ing and prod­uct choices. 

OpenBrand’s con­sumer sur­vey data indi­cat­ed more con­sumers buy­ing HI durables are adjust­ing how they pur­chase as a result of tar­iffs with an +8 ppt increase since Q1 2025 among those who ​“delayed pur­chas­es due to high­er prices”. While the increase con­tin­ues it’s not as dra­mat­ic from Q2 to Q3 (+2 ppt). Over­all few­er con­sumers report­ed ​‘tar­iffs did not affect’ pur­chase decisions.

Pref­er­ence sig­nals nudged toward domes­tic: ​“bought Amer­i­can-made” rose to 5% (+2 ppts) and ​“con­sid­er more Amer­i­can-made” to 11% (+1 ppts). The share say­ing ​“tar­iffs did not affect my deci­sions” fell to 43% ( – 9 ppts), and tar­iff unaware­ness dropped to 6% ( – 4 ppts) more evi­dence that tar­iff salience is ris­ing and pulling demand toward neces­si­ty and value.

As tar­iffs fluc­tu­ate, we see cor­re­spond­ing shifts in our CPI reports.

OpenBrand NowCast: The latest CPI update

OpenBrand’s CPI Now­Cast Data for Octo­ber 20 shows a slight mod­er­a­tion in price growth across durables, with CPI-Home Improve­ment ris­ing +0.39%, while CPI-Appli­ances edged down 0.08%. The increase in HI reflects per­sis­tent infla­tion in the cat­e­go­ry despite broad­er cooling.

Pricing Shifts in Major Appliances & OPE

For a more nuanced view of how this looks with­in spe­cif­ic indus­tries, let’s look at how CPI is shift­ing in major appli­ances and OPE.

Major Appliance Categories

Price infla­tion is preva­lent across Major Appli­ance cat­e­gories in Sep­tem­ber, espe­cial­ly com­pared to where the cat­e­gories were in March 2025. Cook­tops & Wall Ovens, as an exam­ple, saw 5 per­cent­age point increase from March to Sep­tem­ber. These cat­e­go­ry-wide price increas­es can be cor­re­lat­ed with the tar­iff pol­i­cy shifts start­ing in Q1 2025.

Look­ing for­ward, we expect Major Appli­ance prices to cool back down, and con­tin­ue on the down­ward tra­jec­to­ry they were on before tariffs. 

Take a look at the indi­vid­ual Major Appli­ance cat­e­go­ry CPI shifts and how we fore­cast prices to shift going into 2026.

Cooktops & Wall Ovens

Dishwashers

Laundry

OTR Microwaves

Ranges

Refrigerators

Outdoor Power Equipment

With the excep­tion of a dip in pric­ing for pres­sure wash­ers in August 2025, OPE cat­e­gories have seen steady price infla­tion since the first-half of 2025. 

Unlike Major Appli­ances, we do not expect prices to come down much in OPE cat­e­gories, pri­mar­i­ly because ren­o­va­tion activ­i­ty remains healthy com­pared to the exist­ing and new for-sale hous­ing mar­ket, which has been slump­ing and will only see mar­gin­al growth next year.

Take a look at the indi­vid­ual OPE cat­e­go­ry CPI shifts and how we fore­cast prices to shift going into 2026.

Cordless Pressure Washers

Cordless Handhelds

Mowers

How Our CPI Is Made

OpenBrand’s CPI for Durable and Per­son­al Goods is built to track real price changes as they hap­pen. It pulls from OpenBrand’s pro­pri­etary real-time pric­ing data, across prod­ucts and retail­ers, then applies a con­sis­tent process for track­ing, adjust­ing, and updat­ing prices over time. The result is a clear, up-to-date view of how costs are mov­ing in the real world, help­ing brands, retail­ers, and con­sumers stay informed as mar­ket con­di­tions shift.

Summary

Tar­iffs and infla­tion are reshap­ing how con­sumers shop the Home Improve­ment mar­ket. OpenBrand’s lat­est data shows need-based buy­ing on the rise, with replace­ment and main­te­nance lead­ing pur­chase dri­vers. Tar­iff aware­ness is up, influ­enc­ing tim­ing and prod­uct choic­es, while CPI data shows mild price mod­er­a­tion and more dis­count­ing. Major Appli­ances are pre­dict­ed to cool, but Out­door Pow­er Equip­ment remains ele­vat­ed on steady ren­o­va­tion demand, rein­forc­ing a val­ue-first, neces­si­ty-dri­ven mind­set across the category.

More Market Intelligence 

For a broad­er look into mar­ket data, check out OpenBrand’s pub­lic Mar­ketSig­nal dash­boards for Out­door Pow­er Equip­ment and Major Appli­ances. You can also con­nect with our team of ana­lysts for a one-to-one review of your brand’s market.