Furniture shipments gain 8 percent through Sept.

Smith Leonard's November Furniture Insights report showed mixed results for the wood and furniture industries year-to-date in 2010, with hope for improvement by next year.
A survey of residential furniture manufacturers and distributors done by Smith Leonard showed that year-to-date (January - September) shipments were up 8 percent over the same period one year ago. This year's shipment increase is in addition to the 19 percent gain from 2008 to 2009. Shipments were also higher by 6 percent in September 2010 compared with September 2009, which may relate to the arrival of imported products, according to Smith Leonard. Although new orders for September 2010 were down 3 percent from 2009, they rose 6 percent year-to-date in 2010.
According to the National Association of Realtors, existing-home sales declined 2.2 percent from September 2010 to October 2010 and are 25.9 percent below October 2009 levels, when sales surged prior to the initial deadline for the first-time buyer tax credit. Year-to-date, existing-home sales also fell by 2.9 percent to 4.149 million from the 2009 level of 4.272 million. The U.S. Census Bureau News reported a decline in sales of new single-family homes by 8.1 percent from September 2010 to October 2010, a 28.5 percent decrease from October 2009 levels. Although new home sales were down overall in three of the four regions of the country, new home sales were higher by 3.1 percent in the South.
“The housing market is experiencing an uneven recovery, and a temporary foreclosure stoppage in some states is likely to have held back a number of completed sales. Still, sales activity is clearly off the bottom and is attempting to settle into normal sustainable levels,” said Lawrence Yun, National Association of Realtors chief economist. “Based on current and improving job market conditions, and from attractive affordability conditions, sales should steadily improve to healthier levels of above 5 million by spring of next year.”