Summer Sales Robust

The summer is nearly over and it's time to take a look at how sales shaped up. 

This year is shaping up to be the best selling season since 2009.  The sales figures have been consistent which is refreshing.  The past several years have been marred by awkard policy gimmicks and economic trauma.  Based on the trendline, it appears the worst of the sales volume doldrums is behind us.  

Here is the chart stacking monthly sales against each other.  This chart helps us see through the seasonal cycle and compare sales for the same months in different years. 

As you can see, we are still below 2008 sales volume (which was deflating from 2007's stratospheric sales), but our trend is in the opposite direction now. 

The bottom line is that the fundamentals are better than they have been in a long time.  In light of the good news, it will be interesting to see how clouds on the horizon impact sales the first several months of 2013.  We shall see.  In the meantime, the trends and numbers look very encouraging.