Last year's forecast came close
By Furniture Today Staff -- Furniture Today, January 14, 2008
High Point — Last year's Furniture/Today forecast was almost on target, but a little pessimistic.
A year ago, our panel predicted that U.S. consumer spending on furniture and bedding would hit $85.9 billion in 2007, an increase of 1.5% over 2006. That was a bit off of the actual spending, based on the latest government numbers and analysts' estimates, of $86.9 billion, an increase of 2.8% from the previous year.
Likewise, we predicted that U.S. furniture store sales would come in at $63.2 billion, a gain of 1.8% over 2006. The number actually grew by an estimated 2.1% to $65.2 billion.
Last year's forecast projected that U.S. gross domestic product would grow 2.7% — within a hair of the actual estimated gain of 2.6%.
We overestimated the health of the housing market, however, forecasting declines but nothing near the slump that actually occurred.
