Consumer Price Index: Durable Goods | April 2026

In April, price growth for consumer durable goods accelerated with a month-over-month (MoM) increase of +0.42%. This is up from a revised monthly +0.38% increase in March. Across our four product groups, three showed month-over-month acceleration, with home improvement showing the only price growth slowdown. While the appliance group is amongst the three that showed an acceleration in price growth month-over-month, the longer run trend has been downwards. In this month’s OpenBrand CPI-DG report, we take a deeper look at what (and who) has been driving this trend.

Appliance prices have generally trended downward in recent years due to globalized manufacturing, strong retail competition, and production efficiencies that have limited pricing power. More recently, despite rising oil prices, appliance prices have shown little increase as manufacturers and retailers absorb higher costs or offset them through promotions and supply chain adjustments. In this release of the OpenBrand CPI of Durable Goods, we take a deeper dive into appliance price movements.

Much of this downward trend has been driven by smaller appliances—such as air purifiers, countertop cooking products, and vacuums—where rapid innovation, lower price points, and intense competition have put consistent downward pressure on prices. In contrast, price movements among larger appliances have been more mixed: refrigerators have generally trended flat to slightly downward, while categories like dishwashers and ranges have seen more upward pressure, reflecting differences in cost structures, feature upgrades, and pricing dynamics across major appliance segments.

While larger appliances have not experienced the same degree of price easing as smaller appliances, promotional activity suggests the story is more nuanced. As shown in the chart below, LG Electronics stands out with significantly higher promotional activity compared to the same period last year, indicating that even in categories with more stable or rising price trends, consumers can still find meaningful deals through increased discounting.

• Key CPI Takeaways for April 2026 & Macroeconomic Outlook
• Product Group Highlights
  • Appliances
  • Communication
  • Home Improvement
  • Recreation
• CPI 2026 Forecast: Macroeconomic Summary
• Methodology

Overall OpenBrand Consumer Price Index Movement: The OpenBrand CPI of Durable Goods recorded a +0.42% monthly change in April, notching the twenty-second consecutive month-over-month increase and 24th of the last 25th months. All product groups experienced price growth this month.  

Discount Trends: April brought mixed changes in discount activity to the durable goods sector, with magnitude month-over-month falling to 19.1% of all durable goods from 19.3% in the month prior.  The typical frequency increased to 25.7%, up from 25.2% the month prior. 

Product Group Price Trends:  Prices of all groups climbed month-over-month, while all product groups except Home Improvement experienced a slowdown in the rate of growth from the month prior.  The group summary is as follows:

• Appliance Group (+0.08%)  
• Communication Group (+0.50%)  
• Home Improvement Group (+0.14%)  
• Recreation Group (+0.87%) 

CPI: Appliances

Prices for appliances increased on a month-over-month basis in April to +0.08%, rising from a revised -0.01% in the month prior. The positive price growth was at least partially driven by the typical discount magnitude decreasing to 17.0% from 17.2%, while the frequency of discounts increased to 41.3% from 41.1% the month prior. The discount frequency has been trending upwards for numerous months for the appliance group, beginning in December 2025 and continuing into 2026.

CPI: Communication

Prices of communication devices, including phones, tablets, computers, and printers, rose on a month-over-month basis to +0.50%, up from a revised +0.33% the month prior. Discount frequency decreased from 15.2% to 14.7%, while magnitude remained unchanged at 19.3% from March to April. The acceleration in price growth was at least partially driven by the decrease in frequency of discounts.

CPI: Home Improvement

Prices for home improvement goods experienced a deceleration in growth this month, decreasing to +0.14% on a month-over-month seasonally-adjusted basis in April, falling from a revised +0.44% in the month prior, showing 55 consecutive month-over-month flat or monthly increases. The deceleration in price growth was at least partially driven by the increase in the typical discount frequency (up almost 2 percentage points from last month).

CPI: Recreation

The rate of price growth of recreational products, including TVs, headphones, and speaker systems, experienced acceleration this month, increasing to +0.87% on a month-over-month seasonally-adjusted basis in April, up from a revised +0.67% in March. Both discount magnitude (from 23.7% in March to 23.8% in April) and discount frequency (from 31.7% in March to 32.0% in April) grew slightly this month, but prices for the recreation group also grew. Given this price growth in the face of both a higher discount magnitude and an increase in frequency of discounts, it is most likely that shelf prices for recreation products were set higher in April.

As of May 2026, the outlook for the U.S. durable goods sector is mixed, shaped by both cost pressures and resilient consumer activity.  Key demand indicators are showing signs of strength:  Retail Sales and Consumer Confidence are both on the rise in 2026. Personal Consumer Expenditures are up by $195.4 billion as of March 2026.

A sharp rise in global energy prices, driven largely by disruptions in the Middle East and constrained flows through the Strait of Hormuz, however, has significantly increased production, transportation, and input costs. Oil benchmarks such as Brent Crude are now projected to average around $105 per barrel in the second quarter, a dramatic upward revision that is feeding into broader inflation.

For durable goods manufacturers, this translates into sustained cost pressure across materials like steel, plastics, and electronic components, as well as higher logistics expenses. As a result, pricing flexibility remains limited, keeping appliance and other durable goods prices elevated despite promotional activity.

At the same time, monetary policy has turned more restrictive, adding another layer of pressure to interest-rate-sensitive purchases.  The Federal Open Market Committee is now expected to delay rate cuts until December 2026.  This shift is already weighing on demand: real GDP growth is decreasing in 2026.  For the durable goods sector this environment suggests increased reliance on discounting to stimulate sales.

Labor market conditions are also softening, further complicating the outlook.  The hiring rate continues to fall, currently reported at 3.1%.  Large layoffs are not currently happening, but nor are companies increasing their hiring.  Slower income growth and rising uncertainty are likely to dampen consumer confidence, particularly for discretionary durable goods purchases.  For manufacturers and retailers of durable goods, this combination of cost inflation and weakening demand creates a difficult balancing act between maintaining margins and preserving market share.

Looking ahead, persistently high oil prices could further erode growth and push inflation higher, potentially delaying monetary easing even longer. Additional geopolitical escalation or damage to key energy infrastructure could amplify these effects.  Until more relief occurs – such as what is happening with keeping tariffs below the maximum rate – then, the durable goods sector is likely to operate in a constrained environment defined by elevated costs, cautious consumers, and limited policy support.

Note: This summary is based on data available as of early May 2026 and may be subject to revisions in future releases. Special thanks to Jordan Carter, Lauren Finck, and Bryce Tecson for their contributions to this month’s report.

For questions about the report, please contact Ralph McLaughlin at ralph@openbrand.com 

For press inquiries, please contact press@openbrand.com 

The OpenBrand CPI of Durable Goods is constructed using a data-driven methodology that ensures accuracy, timeliness, and transparency in measuring price trends for both short and long-lasting consumer products. The methodology consists of the following key components:

Data Collection

• Real-Time Price Tracking: Prices are sourced daily from online marketplaces, retail websites, and brick-and-mortar store listings.
• Retailer & Manufacturer Data: Aggregates pricing information from major retailers, direct-to-consumer brands, and wholesale suppliers into broader consumer categories.
• Temporal Coverage: Captures price variations over time, including daily discounts and price promotions

Product Selection & Tracking

• Durable and Goods Focus: The index includes products with an expected lifespan of three years or more, such as home appliances, consumer electronics, and tools.
• Brand & Model Tracking: Individual brands and models are monitored to reflect pricing shifts within competitive product segments, including both permanent changes in listing price as well as temporary promotional pricing.

Price Calculation, Adjustments, and Weighting

• Price Calculation: Tracks month-over-month and year-over-year price movements to measure price stability in the marketplace and take into account both longer-term changes in pricing (such as changes in manufacturer’s suggested retail price) as well as more short-term changes in pricing, such as promotional discounts and sales prices. 
• SKU-Removal Instead of Hedonic Adjustments: When a product (or SKU) becomes unavailable in the BLS goods basket, the BLS implements a SKU-replacement procedure whereby the next most similar product is used in its place, and a quality (hedonic) adjustment procedure is performed to get closer to an apples-to-apples price comparison. Since OpenBrand has data on nearly 100% of the SKUs pricing history in a given product category, we can simply remove that SKU from the basket and rely on price changes of the remaining SKUs in that basket. This eliminates the need for hedonic adjustment in the OpenBrand CPI basket.
• Weighting and Aggregation Method: A weighted geometric mean formula is used to minimize volatility and improve stability in price trend analysis at both the product grouping and category level. Instead of using sales-volume weights when aggregating the index, we take an alternative approach by using persistence-based weights for aggregation. Instead of more frequently purchased items getting more weight in the BLS’ CPI calculation, OpenBrand takes a more novel approach by weighting items with a more established price history in the market more heavily in our CPI calculation than items with a less established history.

Reporting & Updates

• High-Frequency Updates: Published freely on a monthly basis, with a subscription option for daily summaries across categories, sub-categories, and individual products.
• Comparative Benchmarks: We aggregate pricing as analogously as possible to traditional BLS CPI measures for benchmarking purposes.
• Transparency & Accessibility: Provides both open and paid data access for journalists, researchers, businesses, and policymakers.

By leveraging real-time data and advanced statistical techniques, the OpenBrand CPI offers an accurate and dynamic measure of pricing trends, helping businesses and consumers make informed decisions in an evolving economic landscape.