— Furniture Today,
HIGH POINT — U.S. residential furniture factory orders in May were flat with the same month a year ago, according to accounting and consulting firm BDO Seidman.


“We had expected May results to be more positive,” said Ken Smith, national director of BDO’s Furniture Industry Services, in his monthly Furniture Insights newsletter.

That’s because April orders had been down 13% from a year earlier, and Smith had believed the decline was partly because the late-April date of the High Point market would push some orders into May.

“On the other hand, orders were up 18% over April 2013,” he noted. “Plus, with most of the talk about business being slow at retail, at least orders came back to last year’s levels.”

For the year to date, orders are slightly ahead of the first five months of 2012, according to BDO’s factory survey.

Factory shipments in May, meanwhile, were up 1% from a year ago, and the year-to-date total was virtually flat with 2012.

Smith said there could be several causes for the flat business, including hits to consumers’ spending power from costlier gas and higher interest rates, which push up adjustable-rate mortgages. In addition, people who bought larger homes may be saddled with higher costs for upkeep and taxes, leaving less to spend on furniture “until incomes catch up,” he said.