With the ongoing slide of furniture and home furnishings sales, the industry will gather later this month with bigger concerns.
When the furniture industry meets later this month, starting on April 25th, for its twice-yearly market week in High Point, NC, it will seem to be another case of déjà vu. For at least the past six markets stretching for more than three years, furniture makers and sellers have dealt with the post-pandemic hangover that has resulted in diminished sales as consumers turn their attention to out-of-home spending. More recently, the war in the Middle East has meant dramatically increased costs in anything that is petrochemical-based, from the materials used to make furniture to the costs of transporting products via ocean and land vehicles. Which is to say nothing of a consumer who isn’t feeling really positive about spending, given the uncertainties in the country.
Government statistics for February, the most recent month available, show that even the traditional bump furniture gets from Presidents Day sales has not been enough to compensate for broader economic conditions as well as bad winter weather.
Sales of furniture, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, fell 5.6 percent for the month versus a year ago, down to an adjusted estimated $10.89 billion. Through the first two months of 2026, the furniture and home furnishings category has recorded an unadjusted $19.87 billion in sales, off 4.8 percent from a year ago.
But it wasn’t all bad news. The government statistics show that sales for building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers were up 3.8 percent for the month over February 2025.
These advance estimates are based on a sub-sample of the U.S. Census Bureau’s full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 5,500 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of more than 3 million retail and food services firms.
