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Pre-tariff bump? Home furnishings store sales up big in March, says DOC

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Washington — Furniture and home furnishings sales in March outpaced their 2024 numbers by more than seven points according to the Department of Commerce’s advance monthly estimates.

For the month, the category totaled $11.67 billion in adjusted estimated sales, a 7.7% increase compared with $10.84 billion in March 2024. The March figure was down slightly, 0.7%, against February’s adjusted preliminary $11.756 billion. However, it continues a recent run of year-over-year gains since late 2024.

Year-to-date, furniture and home furnishings store sales have totaled an unadjusted $32.95 billion, up 4.9% on 2024’s totals.

March was the last month before the Trump administration’s announcement of reciprocal tariffs (which are currently in a 90-day pause) and 145% duties on goods from China, so it’s possible that some of the month’s furniture sales are due to consumers pulling demand forward ahead of anticipated increases.

The overall retail snapshot showed an adjusted estimated $734.87 billion in March, which represented a 4.6% gain on March 2024’s $702.52 billion and a 1.4% increase on February’s $722.944 billion.

While all categories but gas stations were up year-over-year, motor vehicle and parts dealers had the highest gain at 8.8% while health and personal care stores were up 7.2%. Related to furniture and home furnishings sales, building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers were up 2.6% on March 2024.

The DOC’s 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.

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