New Census Data Shows How LBM Sectors' Performance Varied in 2024 vs. 2023

By Craig Webb

Fresh, albeit two-year-old federal data illustrates the differences among construction supply dealer sectors in 2024, with hardware and paint stores inching higher from 2023 while home centers, building material dealers, and garden stores all slipped a bit.

The numbers above are part of the Census Bureau's Annual Integrated Economic Survey, a relatively new report that combines over a half dozen annual business surveys into a single document.

The 2024 version, released in early September, covers $513.64 billion worth of sales at building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers nationwide. It's based on reports by companies classified under one of several North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) codes involving building material stores and garden centers.

Lots of pro-oriented dealers aren't counted in this report because they aren't in Census records with NAICS code 44419: "Other Building Material Dealers." The Census Bureau also has less information on this category But the numbers generally are more complete for the home centers, paint/wallpaper, and hardware stores because companies in those categories are more likely to self-identify as such. In any case, the survey numbers are useful for showing annual changes within categories.

The table attached starts with all building material and garden equipment stores, then excludes garden stores to show the numbers for building material and supplies dealers only. The four five-number NAICS categories are subsections of code 4441 and, ultimately, 444.

Hardware stores recorded the biggest year-over-year sales increase, rising 2.5%, while paint and wallpaper stores grew 1.6%. Home centers declined 1.0% and "Other Building Material Dealers" 0.7%.

Webb Analytics' 2025 Construction Supply 150, which covered most of the biggest companies' activity in 2024, reported that home centers and hardware stores on the list grew 1.6%. The report also found that specialty dealers on the reported a 3.1% gain while lumberyards with manufacturing facilities declined 2.1%, lumber-centric manufacturers (such as truss companies) dropped 2.2%, and lumberyards without manufacturing declined 8.5%.