Consumer Price Index: Durable Goods | August 2026

In August, price growth for consumer durable goods decelerated with a month-over-month (MoM) increase of +0.57%. This is down from a revised monthly +0.86% increase in July. Across our four product groups, three showed month-over-month deceleration, with the appliance group showing the only price growth uptick. Against this broader backdrop of moderating durable-goods price growth, back-to-school promotions provide a closer look at how retailers are using discounts to support demand across key communication and recreation categories.

Back-to-school remains an important demand period for consumer technology, but August data shows that retailers are becoming more selective in how and where they offer discounts. Back-to-school promotions across communication and recreation durable goods have become increasingly uneven, particularly for Monitors, Notebooks, Smartphones, Tablets, TV’s, and Wearables, with TV’s standing out as the most heavily promoted category. However, discounting activity appears to be relatively muted compared to years’ prior. Monitors are the stand-alone category that had both their highest discount frequency and magnitude in August of this year.

The year-over-year results reinforce this uneven back-to-school pricing environment. In August 2026, all of the back-to-school categories recorded notable CPI growth, with Notebooks, Smartphones and Tablets recording their highest CPI growth this year. Smartphones and TV’s experienced several consecutive August declines before returning to growth this year.

This year’s back-to-school period suggests a transition from broad promotional calendars to more surgical discounting. A lower discount frequency does not necessarily mean consumers cannot find value; instead, it means value is increasingly concentrated in specific products, retailers, and promotion windows. For durable-goods brands, that puts greater importance on assortment strategy, inventory positioning, and clear differentiation between entry-level promotional products and higher-margin premium models.

• Key CPI Takeaways for August 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 +0.57% monthly change in August. All product groups experienced price increases this month.

Discount Trends: August brought mixed changes in discount activity to the durable goods sector, with magnitude month-over-month rising to 19.4% of all durable goods from 19.2% in the month prior.  The typical frequency decreased to 24.0%, down from 24.6% the month prior. 

Product Group Price Trends:  Prices of all product groups climbed month-over-month, with all groups except the Appliance Group experiencing a downturn in the rate of growth from the month prior.  The group summary is as follows:

• Appliance Group (+0.23%)  
• Communication Group (+0.18%)  
• Home Improvement Group (+0.47%)  
• Recreation Group (+1.22%)  

CPI: Appliances

Prices for appliances rose compared to last month, increasing to +0.23% from +0.20% in August. Discount frequency decreased from 40.8% to 39.0% from July to August, while discount magnitude increased from 17.3% to 18.0% from July to August. The acceleration in price growth was at least partially driven by the decrease in the typical discount frequency.

CPI: Communication

Prices of communication devices, including phones, tablets, computers, and printers, fell decently on a month-over-month basis to +0.18%, down from a revised +0.37% the month prior. The deceleration in prices was at least partially driven by the increase in the typical discount frequency by almost 2 percentage points, up from 12.7% in July to 14.5% in August.

CPI: Home Improvement

Prices for home improvement goods experienced a sharp deceleration in growth this month, decreasing to +0.47% on a month-over-month seasonally-adjusted basis in August, falling from +1.22% in the month prior. Both discount frequency and discount magnitude decreased this month, from 13.7% to 12.6%, and 17.4% to 17.3% respectively. The decrease in both frequency and magnitude of discounts would lead us to expect an increase in prices, however, since prices of home improvement devices decreased in August, it could be that shelf prices were set higher.

CPI: Recreation

The rate of price growth of recreational products, including TVs, headphones, and speaker systems, experienced deceleration this month, decreasing to +1.22% on a month-over-month seasonally-adjusted basis in August, down from a revised +1.66% in July. Discount magnitude increased from 24.0% to 24.4% from July to August, while discount frequency decreased from 31.2% to 29.9% from July to August. The deceleration in price growth was at least partially driven by the increase in the typical discount magnitude.

The current macroeconomic outlook for the durable goods sector remains defined by an uneasy stabilization in energy markets rather than a clean return to normal conditions. Brent crude dipped below $80/barrel early in August, but ended the month at over $89/barrel, reflecting the gradual recovery in Middle Eastern output but also the persistent risk surrounding the conflict between the United States and Iran. Supply from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, and the United Arab Emirates has increased by an estimated 3.8 million barrels per day since bottoming in May, helping prevent a more sustained global oil shortage. Even so, tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz remains impaired, leaving freight, fuel, petrochemical, and manufacturing-cost exposure elevated for durable goods producers and retailers.

The current balance in oil markets depends partly on demand restraint from large importing nations. China has materially reduced crude imports since the conflict began, while the United States and India have also pulled back purchases in recent months. Those adjustments have helped offset the shortfall created by disrupted Hormuz shipments and reduced the likelihood of another major oil-price spike under current conditions. However, this is a fragile equilibrium: a more serious escalation that causes broad and persistent Middle Eastern supply losses could overwhelm import reductions, forcing prices high enough to reduce global fuel consumption and weaken broader economic activity. For durable goods businesses, the struggle is continued volatility in energy-intensive production and consumer budgets rather than a predictable decline in costs.

U.S. growth has held up better than the labor market and inflation outlook might suggest, with consumer spending remaining the largest driver of second-quarter expansion. Consumer spending added 2.1 percentage points to overall growth (the largest contribution to GDP growth since 2025Q3), a substantial improvement from the prior quarter (0.4 percentage points), while nonresidential fixed investment contributed another 1.2 percentage points. For durable goods, business-oriented categories tied to equipment, technology, logistics, and automation have stronger support than consumer discretionary categories dependent on consumer confidence, housing turnover, or readily available credit.

Capital spending remains the clearest bright spot. Inflation-adjusted real business investment rose at an 8.4% annualized pace, marking a third consecutive quarter in which real capital spending has expanded roughly five times faster than real GDP. The AI investment cycle continues to concentrate spending in software, computing equipment, data infrastructure, and related industrial capacity. Intellectual-property investment increased at nearly a 9% annualized rate, software now represents about one-quarter of all fixed investment, and real IT-equipment spending rose about 8% annualized. Orders for core business equipment have also strengthened, with computers and related parts posting the fastest gains. This should support demand for commercial equipment, electrical products, cooling systems, backup power, storage, networking, and other durable goods connected to data-center and enterprise investment.

Consumer-facing durables, however, face a more difficult demand environment. The July employment report showed nonfarm payrolls declining by 23,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, but that improvement reflects labor-force exits rather than a rebound in hiring. With labor-force participation at its lowest level (61.4%) since 1975 outside of the pandemic period and real wage growth negative after accounting for inflation, households are likely to remain selective about major discretionary purchases. Higher energy costs add further pressure by raising the cost of commuting, home energy, delivery, and everyday goods, leaving less room in household budgets for furniture, appliances, recreation products, and other large-ticket categories.

Housing is likely to remain a meaningful drag on residential durables through the year-end. Higher oil prices have reinforced inflation concerns and contributed to elevated 30-year mortgage rates, while affordability remains historically challenging. Soft buyer demand and rising inventories are limiting sellers’ pricing power, and builders are confronting weaker sales, high development costs, and a growing supply of completed homes. Lower transaction volumes reduce the normal replacement and move-related demand for appliances, furniture, flooring, tools, and home-improvement products. Overall, the outlook points to a bifurcated durable goods market: technology and investment-linked categories should benefit from resilient capital expenditure, while housing-related and consumer discretionary segments will need to compete for increasingly cautious demand amid high financing costs, uneven job growth, and continued energy-market risk.

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

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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.