WASHINGTON – Falling slightly below November levels, furniture sales continued its year-over-year climb in December 2020, up for the month for the fifth month in a row, closing out the year with strong sales, although the sector’s sales for the entire year were down.

And despite bringing in a total of $10.11 billion in December, according advance estimates from the Department of Commerce’s monthly report on retail sales, furniture and home furnishings store sales totals for the month were down 0.6% from November 2020’s adjusted $10.17 billion total, which was originally set at $10.3 billion in last month’s report, but up 3.1% from December 2020.

Similarly, for the three month period of October-December, totals were up 3.5% year-over-year and down 0.9% when compared with July-September of this year.