Pool Prices Are Going Up… Again

If you’ve been holding out and waiting for pool prices to drop, you may have to continue waiting. Analysts are predicting pool prices to increase this year due to rising costs for labor, materials, and equipment. The Federal Reserve approved the first rate increase in three years back in March in an effort to combat inflation, and a 50 basis point hike may be looming on the horizon.

Consumers who plan on buying a swimming pool this year can expect to pay a premium according to analysts. Builders across the nation are feeling the pinch of rising costs. Across the board; increased costs for labor and equipment are driving a need to recalibrate pricing structures yet again this season. Construction materials used to build swimming pools rose 31.3% percent from early 2020 to early 2022.

Construction Material Price Increases

As pool builders and swimming pool contractors attempt to maneuver a vastly different landscape of pricing, year over year increases can immediately be seen on the following materials:

• Concrete – Up 11.6% since the start of 2021
• Lumber – Up 79.5% in cost from September 2021 to April 2022.
• Steel – Up 74.4% in price since start of 2021
• PVC Pipe – Up 36.9% since start of 2021

(Statistics provided by the Associated General Contractors of America)

Manufacturers & Distributors Raising Prices

A round of price increase letters began circulating early this spring from some of the nation’s largest manufacturers and distributors. Consequently, builders are looking at big jumps in cost for pool pumps, filters, heaters, and a variety of other related equipment and components. Builders aren’t the only ones struggling, however. Pool service companies are also looking at sharp price increases from last year on chlorine as well as other chemicals.

To get a better understanding of how rising costs are impacting pool companies day to day operations, we asked several pool builders how they are navigating an environment of continuous price increases and what they are telling customers.

Consumers Have The Wrong Information About Pool Prices

“Honestly, there is a disconnect with consumers over how much pools really cost these days,” said Southern California pool designer James White of Dream To Design. “Homeowners are reading outdated or just completely inaccurate information when price shopping for a swimming pool.”

How Much Have Pool Prices Increased?

The majority of pool builders we surveyed in a recent poll say they have had to increase prices by 40-50% in order to keep up with inflation. “Unfortunately the base price of a swimming pool has gone up over the last two years,” said pool builder, JC Rodriguez who builds concrete in-ground pools, “for a basic pool without all the bells and whistles, we’re starting at around the $60,000 range and go up from there. Most of the time if we’re talking about a pool and spa with decking your average swimming pool is going to wind up at the $120,000-$130,000 price range.”

The prices that Rodriguez is estimating are consistent with what pool builders across the nation are charging for a complete in-ground swimming pool package. Pool Magazine surveyed a sample of 1,000 pool builders to see how their prices had increased since 2020.

Out of 1,000 pool professionals surveyed on April 1, 2022, 72.7% said they raised prices by over 30% since the pandemic began. 28.2% of builders surveyed reported they increased prices by over 50% since the start of 2020. Out of 1,000 builders surveyed, only 49 respondents indicated that they had raised prices less than 10% or not at all. While not indicative of price increases for the entire industry, this survey of builders provides a good cross sampling of increases across the country based off individual responses.

Homeowners Face Sharp Price Increases on Building a Swimming Pool in 2022

“We decided to build a pool at the absolute wrong time. I just paid $65,000 for our pool and it’s nothing extravagant,” said homeowner Mike Sovenski. “Not only was the same pool $40,000 before Covid, but our pool took 8 months to build. If I knew then what I know now, we would have waited but hindsight is 20/20.”

While some are struggling to rationalize the jump in prices, many homeowners have their minds fixed on building a pool this year and are ready to absorb the increases. “For us, it makes a lot of sense to build a swimming pool, this is a spec home and we will see our return on the back-end when we sell the house,” said Stepan Federov of Carmichael, CA.

Others have been waiting for so long just to get onto their builder’s dig schedule, that they are happy just to be able to say they are finally building a pool. “We wanted a pool and have just been playing the waiting game,” said Justin Brennan of Staten Island, NY, “It was our bad luck that we were unable to build exactly when we wanted to. Our builder was backlogged but we decided to wait,” explained Brennan, “we just broke ground last week and our pool will cost around 30% more than we were originally quoted. Quite frankly, I’m just happy that it’s finally underway.”

A Change In The Wind

While many homeowners are still waiting for the opportunity to build a pool, still more may decide to put off building a pool altogether right now. Indicators from some of the largest publicly held companies in the pool industry demonstrate that the pandemic craze for pools may be ending. Year-to-date, stock movements paint a less than rosy forecast for the rest of 2022. As of the time of this article – PoolCorp is down -24.31%, Fluidra is down -20.09%, and Latham’s stock is sharply down -50.06% since the start of the year. Watching how some of the top performers are struggling is a fair indication of what is going on in the rest of the industry.

In light of numerous global events, some of the largest pool builders are waiting to see exactly how the market will react before making any radical changes. “The geopolitical climate may certainly impact how our industry performs and how we’re able to enjoy the surge in demand, post-pandemic,” said Bonnie Chong, CEO of Anthony & Sylvan Pools who is actively monitoring developments in the industry. (Listen to our entire conversation on the Pool Magazine podcast).

“Not every market may experience the same factors that drive demand at the same time,” said Chong, who says that she plans to leverage Anthony & Sylvan’s footprint in a changing environment. Her outlook, however, remains optimistic that the demand will remain strong with consumers well into 2023. “Hopefully now folks have really started to find value in the home and value in spending time with family and friends in the backyard.”

The spike in demand we saw over the last two years does add some credence to that assumption. The pandemic probably did more to reinforce the value of a pool in the minds of consumers than possibly anything else in recent decades. One thing is clear, how consumers react to buying a pool in this rapidly changing environment is something the entire industry is watching closely this season.