Conspicuous Correlation: Retail Sales January 2010

Today, the U.S. Census Bureau released its latest nominal read of retail sales showing an increase of 0.5% from December 2009 and an 4.7% increase from January 2009 on an aggregate of all items including food, fuel and healthcare services.

Discretionary retail sales including home furnishings, home garden and building materials, consumer electronics and department store sales declined 4.16% compared to January 2009.

Further, adjusted for inflation (now deflation), “real” discretionary retail sales declined 6.52% since Januray 2009.

On a “nominal” basis, there had appeared to be “rough correlation” between strong home value appreciation and strong retail spending preceding the housing bust and an even stronger correlation when home values started to decline.

The following chart show my initial analysis plotting the year-over-year change to an aggregate series consisting of the primary discretionary retail sales categories that I termed the “discretionary” retail sales series and the year-over-year change to the S&P/Case-Shiller Composite home price index since 1993 and since 2000.

As you can see there was, at the very least, a coincidental change to home values and consumer spending during the boom and then the bust, but as home values have continued to decline, retail spending has remained low but has not continued to consistently contract.

Looking at the chart below (click for full-screen dynamic version), adjusted for inflation (CPI for retail sales, CPI “less shelter” for S&P/Case-Shiller Composite) the “rough correlation” between the year-over-year change to the “discretionary” retail sales series and the year-over-year S&P/Case-Shiller Composite series seems now even more significant.