Relatively slow home sales and sluggish demand for do-it-yourself projects kept pressure on Home Depot, though the Atlanta-based operator of more than 2,300 stores was able to post its first annual increase in same-store sales after eight straight quarters of decline.

“Our fourth quarter results exceeded our expectations as we saw greater engagement in home improvement spend, despite ongoing pressure on large remodeling projects,” Home Depot CEO Ted Decker said in a statement Tuesday. The executive cited continued capital investments by the company “despite uncertain macroeconomic conditions and a higher interest rate environment” that continue to dampen overall home improvement demand.

Elevated interest rates and slow home sales have generally weighed on Home Depot and rival Lowe’s for nearly the past two years. Home Depot’s full-year 2024 sales reached $159.5 billion for a 4.5% annual increase, though comparable-store sales declined 1.8%. Net income for the year was $14.8 billion, down from $15.1 billion for 2023.

The latest February consumer confidence survey by The Conference Board, an economic research group, showed purchasing plans for homes continuing to recover over the past six months, buoyed by a gradual decline in interest rates.

But more than half of respondents, 51.7%, said they expect higher interest rates over the next 12 months, with just 24% anticipating lower rates — possibly weighing on future sales of homes and the big-ticket items that go into them, like appliances and electronics. Home Depot projected a modest 2.8% growth in total sales for fiscal 2025 and same-store sales growth of 1%.

Office attendance in 10 large cities averaged 51.5% of pre-pandemic levels for the week ended Feb. 19, up slightly from the prior week’s 51.4% in tracking by Kastle Systems. Average attendance has generally hovered around 50% for most of the past year, peaking at 54.2% in late January.

Based on anonymous keycard data from its office property clients, the security technology firm’s latest report showed Texas cities continuing to lead for attendance, with Houston at 63.9%, Austin at 59.2% and Dallas at 57.3%.

They were followed by Chicago at 52.1% and New York at 51.7%. Washington, D.C., bounced back from recent declines caused by severe winter weather and federal job cuts to reach 51.1%, the same figure posted for San Jose in California’s Silicon Valley.

Average attendance generally has remained steady in most of the tracked cities for the past year, even as many large companies have been increasing their in-office work requirements and reducing remote and hybrid schedules. The latest firms to do so have included TikTok, JPMorgan Chase, AT&T, Toyota and Amazon. The federal government has done the same, as some U.S. state and local governments mull similar shifts.

Consumer confidence fell to a nearly four-year low in The Conference Board’s latest monthly survey report, with concerns over trade tariffs and their potential effects on lingering inflation ranking highest among respondents.

Tracking several metrics and using 1985 as a base of 100, the economic research firm’s February survey showed confidence registering at 98.3, down seven points from the prior month. A separate index gauging year-ahead expectations fell 9.3 points to 72.9 for February.

“In February, consumer confidence registered the largest monthly decline since August 2021,” Stephanie Guichard, senior economist for the economic research group, said in a statement Tuesday. “This is the third consecutive month-on-month decline, bringing the index to the bottom of the range that has prevailed since 2022.”

Similar to another closely watched monthly survey by the University of Michigan, the latest report from the New York-based Conference Board showed pessimism rising regarding future prospects for household income, job growth and overall business conditions. Guichard noted pessimism about future employment prospects reached a 10-month high, though government data shows the U.S. jobless rate remaining low by historical standards at around 4%.

Based on online surveys conducted through Feb. 19 by technology firm Toluna, The Conference Board said the drop in confidence was shared across most income groups and all age groups but was deepest among those between 35 and 55.