Consumer Price Index: Durable and Personal Goods | February 2026

In February, price growth for consumer durables and personal goods accelerated after a strong but typical uptick in January, with a month-over-month (MoM) increase of +0.26%. This is down from a revised monthly +0.90% increase in the month prior. Across our five product groups, four showed month-over-month deceleration, with both the appliance and communications group showing moderate price declines. See below for more detail on which categories specially helped drive the decrease in these groups.

Within those groups, we see consistently strong downward movement in prices across the component categories. Within appliances, a full 14 of 16 categories saw price declines in February. Those appliance categories with the largest monthly declines include refrigerators (-0.76%), laundry (-0.71%), icemakers (-0.68%), vacuums (-0.62%), and countertop cooking (-0.52%).

Within communications, a little under a third of categories (5 of 18) witnessed price month-over-month price declines in February. Those communications categories with the largest monthly declines include wireless routers (-1.14%), ink (-0.66%), toner (-0.26%), monitors (-0.22%), and tablets/detachables (-0.14%).

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

Overall OpenBrand Consumer Price Index Movement: The OpenBrand CPI of Durable and Personal Goods recorded a +0.26% monthly change in February, notching the fifteenth consecutive month-over-month increase and 20th of the last 21st months. Although there was a sharp decrease in price growth this month, this pattern is inline with what we typically see occurring as we move from January to February.

Discount Trends: February brought mixed changes in discount activity to the durables and personal goods sector, with frequencies remaining relatively flat month-over-month climbing only slightly to 22.7% of all durable and personal goods from 22.6% in the month prior.  The typical magnitude decreased to 19.5%, down from 19.9% the month prior. 

Product Group Price Trends:  All product groups except personal care experienced a slowdown in the rate of growth from the month prior, with prices of all groups except appliances and communication climbing month-over-month.  The group summary is as follows:

• Appliance Group (-0.25%)  
• Communication Group (-0.23%)  
• Home Improvement Group (+0.47%)  
• Personal Care Group (+0.75%)  
• Recreation Group (+0.54%)  

CPI: Appliances

Prices for appliances decreased on a month-over-month basis in February to -0.25%, falling from a revised +0.32% in the month prior. The negative price growth was at least partially driven by the frequency of discounts increasing to 37.6% from 36.8% the month prior, while the typical discount magnitude decreased only slightly to 17.7% from 17.9%.

CPI: Communication

Prices of communication devices, including phones, tablets, computers, and printers, fell on a month-over-month basis to -0.23%, down from a revised +0.36% the month prior. The frequency and magnitude of discounts both grew in February. Frequency increased from 13.5% to 14.5%, while magnitude grew by almost 1.5 percentage points from 17.6% to 19.0% from January to February. The decrease in prices of communication devices most likely was led by the growth in both the frequency & magnitude of discounts; the decrease being especially emphasized by the decent increase in magnitude of discounts.

CPI: Home Improvement

Prices for home improvement goods experienced a deceleration in growth this month, decreasing to +0.47% on a month-over-month basis in February, falling from a revised +0.70% in the month prior, showing 30 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 (10.6% from 10.0% the month prior), while the typical magnitude of discounts decreased (16.3% from 17.3% the month prior).

CPI: Personal Care

Prices of personal care products grew sharply on a monthly basis in February by +0.75%. Some of this increase may be due to the sizeable decreases in both the magnitude of discounts (falling by almost 1.5 percentage points from 22.2% in January to 20.6% in February) & in the frequency of price discounts (falling by 2 percentage points from 23.2% in January to 21.2% in February).

CPI: Recreation

The rate of price growth of recreational products, including TVs, headphones, and speaker systems, experienced deceleration this month, decreasing to +0.54% on a month-over-month basis in February, down sharply from a revised +2.55% in January (falling by more than 2 percentage points in one month’s time).

A decrease in both the frequency of discounts – down slightly to 29.6% in February from 29.8% in January – and the average magnitude of discounts – down to 24.0% from 24.5% over the same time period – would normally lead to expectations of price increases due to the decrease in discount activity. Because this expectation did not happen this month for recreation products, it is most likely that shelf prices for recreation products went down, leading to the decrease in the rate of growth for this product group.

It should also be noted that prices for recreation products tend to fall by about 2 percentage points every February. Given this trend in prices every February, which is illustrated below, the decrease in price growth in spite of a lack of discount activity makes sense.

As of March 2026, the U.S. economy continues to move toward a more stable inflation environment, particularly for durable and personal goods. After several years of elevated price growth, categories such as appliances, furniture, electronics, clothing, and household supplies have seen noticeably slower increases. Improved supply chains, healthier inventories, and the fading effects of earlier tariff-related cost pressures have helped restore pricing discipline across much of the consumer goods sector. For households, this has translated into more predictable pricing and fewer sharp increases at checkout.

However, the recent escalation of military conflict involving Iran has introduced a new source of inflation risk through energy markets. Oil prices have risen in response to concerns about potential supply disruptions in the Middle East, particularly around key shipping routes. Higher crude prices have already pushed gasoline prices upward, and sustained increases could ripple through transportation and logistics costs across the economy.

For durable and personal goods, the impact of higher energy prices would likely be indirect but meaningful. Elevated fuel and shipping costs can raise production and distribution expenses, potentially slowing or temporarily reversing the moderation in goods inflation. At the same time, higher gasoline prices reduce disposable income, which could dampen demand for discretionary items such as home furnishings and electronics—limiting retailers’ ability to pass along higher costs.

If energy price increases remain contained and the conflict does not significantly disrupt global supply, the broader trend of moderating goods inflation is likely to continue through 2026. But a prolonged or escalating conflict that drives oil substantially higher would pose a renewed upside risk to overall inflation.

In short, March 2026 reflects a U.S. economy where durable and personal goods prices are stabilizing, yet energy-driven uncertainty tied to geopolitical tensions has reintroduced volatility into the inflation outlook.

Note: This summary is based on data available as of early March 2026 and may be subject to revisions in future releases.

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

For press inquiries, please contact press@openbrand.com 

Special Note on Methodology Update — OpenBrand Consumer Price Index

Beginning with the February 2026 release, personal care products will no longer be included in the OpenBrand Consumer Price Index (CPI). February will represent the final month in which personal care categories are incorporated into the headline index.

This methodological update reflects a strategic refinement of the OpenBrand CPI’s core objective: to measure price and discount trends exclusively within the consumer durable goods sector. While personal care products provided valuable insight into broader retail pricing dynamics, their pricing behavior and promotional cycles differ meaningfully from those of durable goods. Removing these categories will enhance the precision and interpretability of the index as a focused measure of durable goods inflation and discounting activity.

To preserve historical continuity and analytical comparability, all future releases of the OpenBrand CPI and the OpenBrand CPI NowCast will include back-calculated index values with personal care products removed. This revised historical series will allow users to evaluate long-term trends on a consistent methodological basis and ensure that month-over-month and year-over-year comparisons remain accurate.

This refinement strengthens the OpenBrand CPI’s role as a high-frequency, data-driven indicator of pricing power, discount intensity, and inflation trends across consumer durable goods. We believe this update will improve clarity for policymakers, industry stakeholders, investors, and media users who rely on the index for timely insight into the durable goods marketplace.

Further details regarding the updated methodology and revised historical series will be made available in the technical documentation of future releases.

Methodological Notes

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.