News
Release
November 1, 2004
New AKTRIN Report on :
THE AMERICAN DEMAND FOR HOUSEHOLD FURNITURE AND TRENDS
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This book analyzes the economic and demographic
forces impacting the demand for household furniture in the United States . The study is
finely segregated by product categories and geographical regions. The author of the book
comes to some interesting and unexpected conclusions which need to be taken into account
to gain a thorough appreciation of the present and future course of the American furniture
demand.
Forecasts are provided to 2013.
The 2003
value of the furniture market in the United States amounted to an estimated $71.6 billion
measured at retail prices. Of this, 37.8% is
upholstered furniture (mainly chesterfields and matching chairs), 44.0% is wooden
case-goods (mainly bedroom furniture), 12.5% is mattresses and foundations, and the
remaining 5.8% is metal furniture (mainly outdoor furniture).
Measured
at manufacturers?prices domestic household furniture sales reached an estimated $34.0
billion in 2003 or about 47.5% of the total dollars spent by U.S. households on furniture.
The $37.6 billion difference between the
prices received at the retail level and the prices received at the manufacturers?level
represents a combination of transportation costs, wages and other costs at the retail
level, the retailer’s profit
margin, plus all sales taxes.
Over the
last two decades household furniture purchases increased significantly from $23.8 billion
in 1983 to $71.6 billion in 2003, or more than tree times. In other words, sales increased
at an average annual pace of 6.1% over this period. However, growth has been much slower
recently, and in 2003 growth of household furniture sales was only 2.7%.
Some of
the growth during the past 20 years was due to rising prices. If expressed in constant
2000-dollar terms, the increase between 1983 and 2003 was 2.6 times, that is from $ 29.0
billion to $ 75.4 billion.
The
number of households in the United States will grow by about 11.5% over the next decade
(that is slightly less than 1.0% per year). This pace is a bit faster than the 10.2% pace
for the total population.
We expect real disposable income per
household will also increase by about 12.3% (or slightly more than 1% per year) over that
period. Thus total real disposable income
will grow by about 23.8% between 2003 and 2013.
Based on
these assumptions, We expect furniture spending growth to continue throughout the
projection horizon, slowing from an annual rate averaging around 3.3%
in 2005 to a rate of 2.0% from 2006 to 2008,
1.5% on 2009 and 2010, and only 1.0% from 2011 to 2013. Thus, real household furniture
spending - in constant 2003 dollars - will grow by 23.8% from $71.7 billion in 2003 to
$88.7 billion in 2013.
Household
Furniture Spending 2000
to 2003 and forecast to 2013
(in
millions of constant 2003-Dollars) |
