HIGH POINT — U.S. residential furniture factories posted another down month in February, with orders and shipments both off 7% from the same month last year, according to Smith Leonard.

For the first two months of the year, the accounting and consulting firm’s survey of factories indicated that orders were off 6% and shipments down 5% from the 2007 pace. Some 60% of survey participants reported a decline in orders year-to-date.

“We did hear some signs of improvement in March, but the improvement in orders does not appear to have real traction yet,” Ken Smith, the firm’s managing partner, wrote in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter. “We are not really expecting any significant improvement soon with all the issues in the economy.”

Smith did say he found the mood surprisingly upbeat at the recent April High Point Market, although it will probably be late May before the real results of market are known.

He added that manufacturers seemed to be able to impose some much-needed price increases, and that retailers were not fighting them. He said the industry will benefit if it can “get prices back up to a level that manufacturers and distributors and retailers can make a decent profit. Giving it away has not worked very well so far.”