Housing downturn leaves behind a tattered furniture market

It looks like the ripple effect of the housing market down turn is beginning to occur locally (http://content.hamptonroads.com/story.cfm?story=129326&ran=52005) and I suspect nationwide as well:

Not quite two years ago, the housing market nationally and locally began to slow. As home sales soured, so did furniture purchases. Most of the region's furniture retailers sat back and tried to wait out the slowdown. Some haven't survived.

Sales at furniture and home furnishings retailers across the five South Hampton Roads cities - Chesapeake, Norfolk, Portsmouth, Suffolk and Virginia Beach - fell 20 percent in the fourth quarter of 2006 from the same period the previous year, according to state sales tax data. During the same period, the number of local retailers in that category shrunk from 273 to 250, or 8 percent. "It's a lot of little things, in addition to the housing slump, that added up to 'I don't need that new sofa,' " said Claus Ihlemann, owner of Decorum Furniture, a purveyor of of contemporary furniture with stores in Virginia Beach and Norfolk.

Decorum also needed to address those extremes in retailing within its own customer base, Ihlemann said, so he adjusted his merchandise and prices. Decorum's least expensive sofas, for instance, cost less than $1,000 for shoppers more sensitive to cost, he said. For customers less concerned about their spending, he said, the store put more emphasis on efficiency and faster fulfillment of orders.

Champine said the furniture industry isn't likely to recover for six to 12 months after the housing market bounces back. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that many economists and industry executives say that the housing rebound will be gradual and won't start before 2008 at the earliest. Given this economic climate, even retailers with great products, strong service and a high-end image can't overcome sluggish sales.

Meanwhile, the Chimperator continues to run around saying that the economy is doing great. Yet another example of his being clueless to reality.