New orders for residential furniture again saw double-digit gains, rising 27% in January compared to 2020. This marks eight straight months of double-digit increases as compared to the previous year, as reported by Smith Leonard in the latest issue of Furniture Insights.

New orders for residential furniture continued to rise in December, up 27% compared to 2019. This continues the streak of year-over-year double-digit increases since June 2020, as reported by Smith Leonard in the latest issue of Furniture Insights. The increase in new orders was reported by about 84% of the residential furniture manufacturers and distributors participating in the monthly survey.

HIGH POINT, N.C. -  Residential furniture manufacturers saw new orders rise a respectable 17% in November compared to 2019, following large increases of 30% in June, 39% in July, 51% in August, 43% in September and 40% in October, according to January's Furniture Insights by Smith Leonard. The increase in new orders was reported by about three-quarters of the manufacturers and distributors participating in the monthly survey.

HIGH POINT, N.C. -  Residential furniture manufacturers saw new orders rise 40% in October, marking five straight months of year-over-year improvement, according to December's Furniture Insights by Smith Leonard. The increase in new orders was reported by 77% of the manufacturers and distributors participating in the monthly survey.

Shipments were up 3 percent over August 2019 as participants are having a hard time either ramping up domestic production or importers are having trouble ramping up production overseas.

Residential furniture manufacturers and distributors continued to show improvements in orders. The July survey from Smith Leonard reflected a 39 percent increase in new orders over July 2019 following a 30 percent increase reported in June. Some 88 percent of the participants reported increased orders over the same month last year.

According to the monthly Furniture Insights survey from Smith Leonard, year to date, new orders were down 16 percent from the same period last year.

In May, shipments were down 31 percent after a 50 percent decline reported for April.

HIGH POINT, N.C. - As expected, the COVID-19 pandemic had a "downright ugly" impact on new residential furniture orders. New orders in April were down 61% compared to a year ago, and down 52% from March.  "As the pandemic hit, March orders were down 29% from March 2019. As expected, every one of our participants reported a significant decline in orders," said Ken Smith, managing partner at Smith Leonard in the latest Furniture Insights survey of manufacturers and distributors.