Consumer Price Index: Durable and Personal Goods | August 2025

Price growth for consumer durables and personal goods reaccelerated on a monthly basis in August, with a month-over-month increase of +0.43% compared to a revised monthly +0.24% increase in July. The reacceleration of price growth was observed across all of our price groupings except recreational goods, and is a rebound from a very active month of discounts in July due to Amazon’s Prime Week. What’s more, the reacceleration in August comes amid a slate of new tariffs as well as elimination of the duty-free de minimis treatment, allowing the U.S. Customs and Border Protection to collect tariffs on packaged goods that are below the previous exclusionary threshold of $800.

What’s more, we find that a variety of products in the appliances, communication, home improvement, and personal care sectors were responsible for the price acceleration. Large monthly increases were observed among select desktop computers, dishwashers, outdoor cooking, power tools/accessories, shampoo/conditioner, shaving razors, vacuums, and wearable electronics, with several of these products swinging from negative to positive month-over-month growth between July and August.

• Key CPI Takeaways for August 2025 & Macroeconomic Outlook
• Product Group Highlights
  • Appliances
  • Communication
  • Home Improvement
  • Personal Care
  • Recreation
• CPI 2025 Forecast: Macroeconomic Summary
• Methodology

Overall OpenBrand Consumer Price Index Movement: The OpenBrand CPI of Durable and Personal Goods recorded a +0.43% monthly change in August, notching the ninth consecutive month-over-month increase and 14th of the last 15th. The increase was also a reacceleration from July’s revised figure of +0.24%, when Amazon – and other retailers – ramped up discounting activity during Prime Week. A recap of those discounting trends can be found in last month’s report.

Discount Trends: August brought relatively small changes in discount activity to the durables and personal goods sector, with frequencies rising month-over-month by just 100 basis points to 25.2% of all durable and personal goods from 24.7% in the month prior. This was the highest reading since December 202.. Despite the uptick in discount frequency in August, the typical magnitude decreased to 19.9% from 20.4% the month prior. Given that prices accelerated in the aggregate, this suggests that retailers may be hiding net price increases by increasing the apparent discount rate to consumers. 

Product Group Price Trends: Four product groups – Appliances, Communications, Home Improvement, and Personal Care – all experienced increases in the rate of price growth from the prior month, while the Recreation group also experienced an increase but at a slower rate than the month prior. The group summary is as follows:

• Appliance Group (+0.48%)
• Communication Group (+0.39%)
• Home Improvement Group (+0.68%)
• Personal Care Group (+0.37%)
• Recreation Group (+0.23%)

See the full breakdown of product groupings. 

CPI: Appliances

Prices for appliances increased by +0.48% on a month-over-month basis in August, rising from a revised increase of +0.26% in the month prior. The acceleration in price growth was at least partially driven by a decrease in the frequency of discounts (45.1% from 46.0% the month prior), while the typical discount magnitude decreased to 16.9% from 17.3% the month prior.

CPI: Communication

rices of communication devices, including phones, tablets, computers, and printers, rose on a month-over-month basis to +0.39%, up sharply from a revised +0.15% the month prior. The frequency and magnitude of discounts was essentially unchanged in August, moving from 12.1% to 12.0% and 20.6% to 20.5% from July to August, respectively.

CPI: Home Improvement

The rate of increase for the price index of home improvement goods increased slightly on a month-over-month basis, growing to +0.68% (up from +0.60% the month prior), showing 28 consecutive month-over-month flat or monthly increases. The increase in prices comes amidst a slight increase in the frequency (rising to 16.3% from 15.1%) of discounts, while the magnitude remained unchanged at 18.8%.

CPI: Personal Care

Prices of personal care products increased sharply on a monthly basis in August by +0.37%, up from -0.21% in July. This increase comes amidst decreases in both the frequency and magnitude of discounts, with the frequency falling to 25.5% from 26.0% and the magnitude falling to 21.6% from 20.6% between July and August.

CPI: Recreation

The rate of price growth of recreational products, including TVs, headphones, and speaker systems, decreased to +0.23% on a month-over-month basis in August, down from a revised +0.41% in July. Some of this decrease in the pace of price growth is at least partially due to a sharp increase in the frequency of discounts – to 27.2% in August from 24.2% in July – but a slight decrease in the average magnitude of discounts – to 22.5% from 23.8% over the same time period.

As of September 2025, the U.S. economy is navigating a careful transition from an inflation-driven tightening cycle toward a period of slower, more balanced growth. After two years of aggressive monetary policy and supply-side adjustments, inflation has eased significantly from its peak but remains above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Headline inflation is hovering in the low-3% range, while core inflation continues to show stickiness, particularly in services, signaling that the final stretch of disinflation will be the most difficult.

The labor market, though cooling from the ultra-tight conditions of 2022 and 2023, remains historically strong. Unemployment is holding near 4.2%, and wage growth, while moderating, is still above the pre-pandemic trend. These labor dynamics have kept consumer spending steady, particularly in services, even as borrowing costs weigh on big-ticket purchases. This resilience is contributing to the “last mile” problem for inflation, with services and housing costs continuing to grow faster than goods prices.

Housing markets remain a point of stress. While mortgage rates have inched down from their highs, affordability challenges persist due to elevated home prices and limited inventory. Rent inflation, though slowing slightly, remains firm in many metro areas. Insurance costs—driven by climate-related risks and regulatory shifts—are adding an additional layer of price pressure for homeowners and businesses alike.

Energy markets are stable for now but remain a potential wildcard. Increased renewable generation and domestic energy investment have helped stabilize fuel prices, but geopolitical tensions and climate-driven supply disruptions keep the sector vulnerable to volatility. Food prices have improved compared to last year, but weather shocks and global supply disruptions still pose risks heading into the winter months.

Monetary policy is at an inflection point. The Federal Reserve has maintained its restrictive stance through the summer but has begun signaling openness to a gradual easing cycle, possibly starting late this year or early next year, contingent on continued progress toward its inflation target. Financial markets expect one or two modest rate cuts before year-end, though Fed officials remain cautious about declaring victory too early.

In sum, the macroeconomic outlook as of September 2025 is one of gradual stabilization, but not without risks. Inflation is trending downward but at a slower pace, growth is moderating without collapsing, and policy is poised to shift from restraint to cautious support. The biggest challenges ahead lie in navigating this delicate balance—ensuring that disinflation continues without triggering a downturn, while managing structural shifts in labor, energy, and global trade that will define the next phase of the economy.

Note: This summary is based on data available as of early September 2025 and may be subject to revisions in future releases. With the September 2025 release, we have added additional categories (noted below) and increased the frequency of price observations on several existing categories. Given these changes, we present a comparison of the legacy categories (old) and sample size with the expanded categories and sample size (new). Since the impact is small, in this, and future reports, we use the expanded categories and sample size in calculation of the OpenBrand CPI-DPG and CPI groups.

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 and Personal 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:

1. 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

2. Product Selection & Tracking

• Durable and Personal Goods Focus: The index includes products with an expected lifespan of three years or more, such as home appliances, consumer electronics, and tools, as well as personal care products with a shorter lifespan, such as hair and skin care products, vitamins, over-the-counter medications, and oral care products. 
• 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. 

3. 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.

4. 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.