“Our market continues to face into significant headwinds,” Frank Blake, chairman and CEO, said during a conference call with analysts. “We started the year with a more pessimistic view of the housing and home improvement markets than many. It turns out we were not pessimistic enough.”

Home Depot earned $1.09 billion, or 60 cents a share, for the third quarter, compared with $1.49 billion, or 73 cents a share, for the same period a year ago.

Third-quarter revenue in the quarter dropped 3.5 percent to $18.96 billion, compared with $19.65 billion the same period a year ago.

For the first nine months of the year, Home Depot said it earned $3.72 billion, or $1.94 a share, compared with a profit of $4.84 billion, or $2.32 a share, a 23 percent drop. Nine-month revenue fell 3 percent to $59.7 billion, compared with $61.62 billion recorded in the same period a year ago.