The U.S. office market had a challenging year in 2025, as overall leasing declined 9.6% from 2024 levels and 13.6% below the pre-Covid-19 average, according to data from global real estate adviser Avison Young.
When businesses are not leasing office space, there is lower demand for office furniture. It’s similar to when people are not buying houses, demand shrinks for home furniture and furnishings.
Retailers who sell office furniture and services will suffer lower sales due to declining demand. When those businesses shut their doors, the businesses that patronize them have fewer sources to provide much-needed furnishings.
Total home sales for 2025 were about 1,000 lower than in 2024, registering 4.061 million compared to 4.062 million, which was also the lowest annual home sale total since 1995, according to Realtor.com.
“Furniture, of course, is many times a discretionary and deferrable expense, so weakness in the overall economy or declines in consumer confidence, like we’ve seen the last few months, can impact consumers’ willingness to spend,” Mark Laferriere, an assurance partner at Smith Leonard, told Homes.com in November 2025.
The office furniture sector has suffered from sluggish sales reflected in overall furniture industry results, which showed furniture and home furnishing sales slightly increased in December 2025 by 0.33% month over month, but declined by 0.82% for the year, compared to 2024 unadjusted, according to the CNBC/National Retail Federation Retail Monitor.
For January 2026, furniture and home furnishings sales declined 0.31% month over month seasonally, the report said.
A challenging economic environment led to the most significant furniture chain bankruptcy filing last year when American Signature Inc., which was the parent company of the American Signature Furniture and Value City Furniture chains, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, seeking to reorganize its business and sell its assets, after closing several of its stores.
The Columbus, Ohio-based furniture retailer and eight affiliates filed their petition in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Nov. 22, listing $100 million to $500 million in assets and $500 million to $1 billion in liabilities.
American Signature attempted to reorganize and sell its assets to remain a going concern, but its efforts failed, and it revealed in a Jan. 9, 2026, statement that it would instead liquidate and close all 79 of its Value City Furniture stores in 13 states and 10 American Signature Furniture stores in Delaware and Florida.
