U.S. wood flooring sales in the first quarter of 2023 dropped 2.4% in dollars and 5.5% in square feet, impacted by a sharp decline in new home construction, according to Catalina Research Inc.’s Catalina Report on Wood and Laminate Flooring.
However, the wood flooring segment also showed signs of stabilizing, as manufacturer selling prices increased only 3.3% (compared with a 12.3% gain for all of 2022), according to the report. Lumber prices dipped 28.0% in the first quarter.
U.S.-made wood flooring made up 60.9% of U.S. square footage sales, up from 56.2% in the same period last year, as domestic manufacturers continued to take share from Chinese manufacturers following the section 301 and antidumping tariffs. However, sourcing for wood floors has also shifted to Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, according to Catalina.
