By Paul Ziobro And Chelsey Dulaney 

Home Depot Inc. reported strong sales growth helped by healthy spending among wealthier Americans in an improving housing market.

Sales rose 6.1% at stores open for more than a year, including 7.1% in the U.S., in the first quarter, sending earnings 15% higher for the period. The company increased its sales and profit forecast for the year.

Chief Financial Officer Carol Tome said that about half of Home Depot shoppers live in homes valued above $200,000 which have experienced a stronger recovery over the last six years than those in low-income households.

"The nature of our customer base is helping drive this growth," Ms. Tome said.

In a weak retail environment, home improvement stores like Home Depot remain an outlier with consumers showing more of a willingness to spend money replacing windows and upgrading countertops than to splurge on fashion and everyday goods. Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Tuesday reported a scant 1.1% same-store sales growth at U.S. stores in the first-quarter, and other retailers like Macy's Inc. and Kohl's Inc. have reported weak sales in the first months of the year.

Recent government data has fueled optimism that the housing market is picking up after a slow winter. U.S. housing starts rose 20% in April to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.14 million, the highest level since November 2007. New applications for building permits, which shed a light on construction over the coming months, rose 10.1%.

Home Depot's sales are being driven by more people coming into its stores, as the number of transactions rose 4.6% in the period. Average ticket rose 1.8% to $58.60. Online sales grew 30% in the quarter, but remain a small fraction of the company's total sales which grew 6.1% to $20.9 billion.

Overall, the company reported earnings of $1.58 billion, up from $1.38 billion, a year earlier. Results were helped by a $71 million tax audit settlement.

Home Depot also has had to contend with the aftermath of a widespread data breach last year. The company has said it faces several dozen civil suits in the issue in which millions of customers' credit-card information and emails were stolen. To combat future thefts, the company has completed a project to encrypt credit-card data at the point of sale.

The company's first-quarter results included $7 million in breach-related costs, though Home Depot said it can't yet estimate the full scope of costs related to the breach.

Write to Paul Ziobro at Paul.Ziobro@wsj.com and Chelsey Dulaney at Chelsey.Dulaney@wsj.com

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