WREN Report: Furnishings Sales Tumble, New House Sales Results Mixed

November 2, 2008  by in UnCategorized   

By Home Furnishings Business in on November 2008 • Consumer spending on home furnishings, including furniture and bedding, dipped again in September. Home furnishings spending in September, on an annualized basis, was $407.1 billion, down 0.7 percent from August spending. Measured against September 2007 spending, total spending on home furnishings decreased 2.2 percent.

Spending on furniture and bedding also tumbled in September, down 7 percent from this time last year to $79.2 billion. Compared with August spending, consumers spent 1.9 percent less on furniture and bedding in August. September spending on furniture and bedding was at its lowest rate since May of 2005.

The U.S. Department of Commerce tracks consumer spending. Included in home furnishings is virtually everything in consumer homes, including home textiles, consumer electronics, home accents and major appliances. Antiques and valuable art are not included.

• Paralleling September’s sales of existing homes, sales of new houses in September offered mixed results, posting some gains measured against August results, but falling far shy of year-earlier sales.

Overall new house sales in the U.S. increased 2.7 percent in September, to 464,000 houses in a seasonally adjusted annual rate. Regionally, new house sales increased in the South (up 0.7 percent) and West (up 22.7 percent) and decreased in the Northeast (down 21.4 percent) and Midwest (down 5.8 percent).

Compared with September 2007 results, overall sales of new houses plummeted 33.1 percent. All four U.S. regions reported steep declines, down 65.1 percent in the Northeast, 37.9 percent in the West, 37.5 percent in the Midwest and 23.8 percent in the South.

Reflecting the opposite of September’s increase in new house sales, the supply of new houses available for sale, measured in the median number of months on the market, decreased 8.8 percent to 10.4 months in September, compared with August. Measured against year-earlier numbers, the supply of new homes on the market was up 10.6 percent. New house sales are tracked by the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Weekly Review of Economic News (WREN) reports are summaries of recently-released economic statistical data that affect the home furnishings industry. WREN reports are compiled by HFB Research Editor Janice Chamberlain.