Sales by Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International members increased by 5.2% percent during July, according to HARDI’s monthly TRENDS report released Sept. 6.

The increase marks a turnaround from June, when sales for HARDI distributors declined by 6.4% percent. The annual sales growth for the 12 months through July 2023 is 6.2% percent, according to a HARDI news release.

“Unusually warm temps were in the headlines during the past month but July 2022 was very warm also,” said HARDI Macroeconomic & Residential Market Analyst Brian Loftus. “July 2023 had 4% more cooling degree days than normal, but that was off by -4% from July 2022. Under those conditions, the 5% sales gain with only a modest price benefit, and after the -6% decline in June, looks like a solid report and helped preserve the six-handle on the annual rate for one more month.”

The Days Sales Outstanding, a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, remained at 39 days during July as it was in June.

“The annual pace of existing home sales, an important leading indicator of home HVAC equipment replacement demand, has dropped from 4.6 million in the spring to 4.3 million which is off by -25% since last summer,” Loftus said. “The current demand is off by about 20% from the 5.3 million pre-Covid normal pace. Replacement demand is likely to remain subdued after home mortgage rates pushed through 7.5% while more than 60% of home mortgages are 4% or less.”