LOS ANGELES — The number of U.S. homes that typically change hands as people relocate for work, retire or trade up for more living space hasn’t been this low in nearly 30 years.

About 28 out of every 1,000 homes changed hands between January and September. That is the lowest U.S. home turnover rate going back to at least the 1990s, according to an analysis by Redfin.

The home turnover rate represents the number of homes sold, divided by the total number of existing sellable properties. While sales data show whether more or fewer homes are selling in a given period, the home turnover rate helps illustrate how homeowners are staying put longer.

“It’s not healthy for the economy that people are staying put,” said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin.

The home sales turnover rate through the first nine months of this year is down about 30 percent from the average rate over the same time periods between 2012 and 2022.

Traditionally, a breadwinner’s new job or a growing family’s need for more space motivate homeowners to sell and relocate. The fact that fewer homes are changing hands suggests there are fewer opportunities for employment mobility or perhaps selling and buying at today’s prices and mortgage rates is unaffordable.

“If people are stuck, it’s reflective of how the economy is stuck,” Fairweather said. “We’re in a low-hire, low-fire labor market and I think that this goes hand in hand with that.”

U.S. employers added just 22,000 jobs in August, according to the Labor Department, down from 79,000 in July and well below the 80,000 that economists had expected.

Government hiring data is on hold during the shutdown, so the Labor Department’s tally of hiring in September was never released, but earlier this month a survey by payroll company ADP showed that the private sector lost 32,000 jobs in September.

Meanwhile, several large companies, including Microsoft, General Motors, Amazon and Target, have announced job cuts.

The slowing job market has many Americans increasingly concerned. That is not a good recipe for home sales.

Another factor keeping a lid on home sales: Many homeowners who bought or refinanced at rock-bottom mortgage rates in 2020 and 2021 have little incentive to sell and buy a home at current home loan rates.

The U.S. housing market has been in a slump dating back to 2022, the year mortgage rates began climbing from historic lows that fueled a homebuying frenzy at the start of this decade.

Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes sank last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. Sales have been sluggish this year, although they accelerated last month to their fastest pace since February as mortgage rates eased. The average rate for a 30-year mortgage fell last week to its lowest level in more than a year.

While lower rates boost home shoppers’ purchasing power, borrowing costs remain too high for many Americans to afford to buy a home following years of skyrocketing prices. The median sales price of a previously occupied U.S. home has risen 53 percent over the past six years.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. homeowners are spending more on home renovation projects, bucking a broader pullback by consumers amid diminished confidence in the economy.

Sales at building materials and garden supply retailers rose 0.8 percent last month from March, the biggest gain since 2022, and were up 3.2 percent from April last year. At the same time, U.S. retail sales overall rose 0.1 percent, a sharp slowdown from March.

The trend comes even as prices for home improvement products have been rising.

The cost of home repairs and remodeling climbed by nearly 4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to Verisk’s Remodel Index. The strategic data analytics firm tracks costs for more than 10,000 home repair items, from appliances to windows.

Recent price increases appear to be driven primarily by labor costs and don’t appear to reflect the ongoing trade war that the Trump administration is engaged in with major U.S. trading partners like Mexico, China and Canada.

“We haven’t seen panic buying from contractors or investors concerned about the impact tariffs might have on future costs, or labor rates being driven up by stricter enforcement of immigration policies,” Greg Pyne, vice president of pricing for Verisk Property Estimating Solutions, said in a report earlier this month.

Home Depot said this week that it doesn’t expect to raise prices because of tariffs, saying it has spent years diversifying the sources for the goods on its shelves. However, executive Billy Bastek said some products now on Home Depot shelves may disappear.

He also noted that the chain is seeing fewer customers taking on large home improvement jobs like kitchen and bath remodels, because high interest rates may be dissuading homeowners from borrowing money to finance such projects.

Spending on home renovations has remained resilient as elevated mortgage rates and skyrocketing home prices have frozen out many would-be buyers. That’s kept U.S. home sales in a slump, limiting the market for homeowners who want to sell.

Many homeowners also bought or refinanced their mortgage when the average rate on a 30-year home loan was below 3 percent or 4 percent in the first couple of years of the pandemic. That’s made them reluctant to sell now, when the average rate is hovering near 7 percent.

In response, many homeowners have opted to to invest in sprucing up their home rather than sell and take on a mortgage with a sharply higher interest rate.

A shortfall in new home construction more than a decade in the making has kept people living in older homes longer. Nearly half of the owner-occupied homes in the U.S. were built before 1980 and have a median age of 41 years, according to an analysis of Census data by the National Association of Home Builders. That aging stock of homes has helped fuel the need for repairs and improvements.

Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies’ most recent quarterly outlook of home improvement projects that spending on home renovations will continue to increase this year, despite economic uncertainty.

Spending by homeowners on maintenance and home improvement projects increased 0.5 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier to $513 billion, according to the JCHS’ leading indicator of remodeling activity, or LIRA.

It also forecasts annual increases from here that will drive spending to $526 billion by the first quarter of next year. That would represent a 2.5 percent increase from the first quarter of this year.

Rising home prices and signs of a solid economy have supported the outlook for higher spending on home improvement, but that could change if the housing market and economic outlook worsen, said Carlos Martín, director of the JCHS’ Remodeling Futures Program.

“Building materials retail sales are strong, but we are seeing a significant downturn in the sales of existing homes and their median sales price since the last projection — both are known contributors to home improvements,” Martin said. “Broader economic turbulence like a recession, a worsening job market or higher inflation would almost certainly temper our expectations.”

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