Furniture retailer Ethan Allen Interiors Inc. said first-quarter sales will decline because of weak consumer confidence. The stock fell the most in almost eight months.


The company expects sales for the three months ending Sept. 30 of $240 million to $245 million, down from the $251.3 million reported a year earlier.

“We find ourselves up against tough comparable results for the prior year quarter during which time we experienced a 9 percent increase in sales and a 15 percent increase in comparable retail written sales,” Chief Executive Officer Farooq Kathwari said today in a statement.

Sales of previously owned homes in the United States fell in August to the lowest since early 2004, and prices fell from year-ago levels for the first time since 1995, the National Association of Realtors said today in Washington. Consumers may have more difficulty tapping the equity in their homes as the property market cools.

“Certainly we are seeing a softening of consumer confidence and we’re also seeing the impact of higher interest rates,” Kathwari said in an interview today.

Ethan Allen also said that a program to fill orders more quickly has made sales more volatile.

“We are delivering our products faster,” Kathwari said. “We don’t have much backlog anymore.”