Cramer: What Home Depot earnings tell us about consumer spending

Home Depot (HD)'s earnings report emerged as one of few positive reports in the home-improvement sector this quarter, a development that gave CNBC's Jim Cramer faith in consumers spending on their homes.

Sherwin-Williams (SHW), Whirlpool (WHR), and Masco (MAS) had some of the most disappointing reports , and were the only three Cramer said clued him in on any slowdown in home spending.

"Now, you can say, 'Well, isn't that everything? The paint aisle, the appliance aisle, and the cabinet aisle,' but … those companies aren't necessarily indicative of how Home Depot did," Cramer said Tuesday.

Instead, Cramer said Home Depot's leadership has been "very, very constructive on the longer term," and it has urged its shareholders to have a longer-term outlook on demographic shifts and birth rates that could improve spending.

"There's a lot of money still pent up to spend on homes," Cramer said in a nod to a theory voiced by Home Depot CFO Carol B. Tome.

The election has caused a pause in consumer spending overall, and retailers like Macy's (NYSE: M) and J.C. Penney (JCP) are eager to calm shareholder worries by blaming any dips on pre-election jitters, Cramer said.

"When you listen to the CEOs in retail, … they actually think the election's a sea change and they definitely think that now [that] it's behind us, people are going to start going out again," Cramer said.