Home-Related Retail Sales Sept 2023
Retail sales Sept 2023 for major home related retail categories.
Retail sales were just released for Sept 2023 by the St Louis Fed. We took the major home related retail categories to analyze how strong the sales were across the entire USA. These included the following data groupings:
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- Retail Sales: Building Materials and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers
- Retail Sales: Building Materials and Supplies Dealers
- Retail Sales: Electronics and Appliance Stores
- Retail Sales: Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores
- Retail Sales: Furniture, Home Furnishings, Electronics, and Appliance Stores
October 2022 was the high water mark in the last 12 months. Since then we have seen a slight downward trend throughout 2023. This continued in September 2023 with sales slightly down in all home related categories Vs the prior month.
While these numbers don’t point to any large changes in the economy, Fed interest rate levels, and home sales - it gives further support to the slight cooling of the economy. If this trend continues, it indicates that interest rates may not rise sharply into 2024. This would mean a positive tailwind for housing sales volumes in 2024.
There is not a lot of bad news in the most recent economic data as it relates to the housing market in 2024.
Overall retail sales in September we strong - up 0.9%. October overall retails sales were just published - showing the first monthly decline in 6 months. Housing related numbers for October are not yet released.
Stew Langille