A refrigerator dies. A sofa sags past saving. The first question is usually the same: how much cheaper is used? It is natural to look to federal price data for the answer. The sources reviewed for this article do not supply one. None of them compares used and new appliance or furniture prices directly.

Close-up of paper bills and a pencil on a worn wooden kitchen table in soft daylight, suggesting a household comparing costs.
Paper bills and a pencil on a worn kitchen table, the setting where many households weigh a used price against a new one.

The one source on used goods is a Bureau of Labor Statistics research piece, "Turning thrifty: incorporating secondhand apparel into the Consumer Price Index". Its title points to work on bringing secondhand goods into the CPI. But it covers clothing. The text available here does not describe the method, and it says nothing about stoves, washers or dining sets.

What the index series show

The St. Louis Fed's FRED site lists several BLS series tied to appliances and furniture. These listings show metadata only: the base year, the frequency and the date range. They do not show the index values themselves. That limits what anyone can say from them.

On the producer side, FRED lists a commodity index for Household Appliances (1982=100, monthly, not seasonally adjusted, January 1947 to September 2026). A search of BLS appliance price index series on FRED turns up several more:

  • Household Appliance Manufacturing, an industry index based at December 1984=100, monthly, December 1984 to September 2026.
  • Major Household Appliance Manufacturing, an industry index based at December 2003=100, monthly, December 2003 to September 2026.
  • Household Refrigerators, Including Refrigerator-Freezer Combinations, a commodity index based at December 2002=100, monthly, December 2002 to May 2026.

On the consumer side, the BLS household furniture series on FRED include two CPI entries. Household Furnishings and Operations (U.S. city average, 1982-1984=100) runs semiannually from the first half of 1984 to the first half of 2026. Household Furnishings and Supplies (December 2009=100) runs semiannually from the first half of 2010 to the first half of 2026. A producer series for Furniture and Household Durables (1982=100, monthly) stretches back to January 1926.

One detail is easy to miss. Both consumer series are semiannual. They cannot tell you what happened to a couch price last month.

What the captured BLS pages could not tell us

Several BLS pages that might fill the gaps came through only as site navigation. That includes the Quality Adjustment in the CPI page and the CPI: Average Price Data page. It also includes Table 2 of the CPI-U release, the CPI news release and the December 2024 relative importance table.

That is a limit of what was captured, not proof of what BLS publishes. The agency may well explain in those pages how it treats used or changed goods. This article cannot say, because the text was not available. Readers who want the answer should open those pages directly and look for how they handle quality changes and secondhand items.

The same caution applies to weights. The relative importance table would show how much of the consumer basket goes to furnishings and appliances. The captured version gave no numbers, so no weights are quoted here.

  • No source here gives used versus new price comparisons for appliances or furniture.
  • No source here gives index values or recent changes for these categories.
  • No source here covers used markets, warranties, safety or consumer rights.

How to read these series without fooling yourself

Start with the series type. FRED labels each series as consumer or producer, and the difference matters. A producer or industry index for appliance manufacturing is not a shelf price. If it rises or falls, that does not tell you what a showroom will charge for a dryer.

Next, check the base period. A series set to 1982=100 and one set to December 2009=100 start from different reference points. Their index numbers cannot be compared directly. Also check the frequency and whether the data are seasonally adjusted. All of the series listed above are not seasonally adjusted.

Finally, do not treat a series listing as a price comparison. A title on FRED shows that a sector is tracked. It does not show whether new dryers cost more or less than six months ago. You need the actual historical values for that, and the listings do not include them.

A practical way to compare used and new

Since the federal series cannot settle the question, the comparison has to happen at the store level. These are common-sense steps, not findings from the sources reviewed.

Get a written quote for the new model you would otherwise buy, including delivery, installation and haul-away. Then price the used option the same way. A used washer that looks cheap can lose its edge once delivery and hookup are added.

Ask about the warranty and the return window for each. Some used sellers offer none. Others offer a short guarantee, and that is worth knowing before you hand over cash. For appliances, ask about the age and whether the seller has any service history. For upholstered furniture, look at the seams and cushions in person.

It also helps to check for recalls on a specific used model before buying. The sources reviewed here do not cover recalls or consumer protections, so look at the manufacturer or the relevant agency for current rules. The federal indexes cannot do this for you. For a single purchase, one written quote and one clear return policy tell you more than any national series.