Consumer Confidence Retreats in June

After a strong rebound in May, consumer confidence resumed its downward trend in June. Consumers remain concerned about the economy and labor market amid ongoing uncertainty, especially around tariffs. This month’s decline erased almost half of last month’s sharp gain, suggesting continued volatility in consumer sentiment.

The Consumer Confidence Index, reported by the Conference Board, measures how optimistic or pessimistic consumers feel about their financial situation. This index fell from 98.4 to 93 in June — the second lowest level since February 2021.

Consumers’ assessment of current business conditions turned negative in June. Respondents rating business conditions as “good” decreased by 2.4 percentage points to 19%, while those claiming business conditions as “bad” rose by 1.6 percentage points to 15.3%.

Meanwhile, consumers’ assessments of the labor market cooled. The share of respondents reporting that jobs were “plentiful” fell by 1.9 percentage points at 29.2%; meanwhile, those who saw jobs as “hard to get” decreased by only 0.3 percentage points to 18.1%.

The Conference Board also reported on consumers’ plans to buy a home within six months. Those planning to buy a home fell slightly to 5.9% in June. Of those, respondents planning to buy a newly constructed home decreased to 0.2%, and those planning to buy an existing home dropped to 3.2%. The remaining 2% were planning to buy a home, but were undecided between new or existing homes.

Fan-Yu Kuo, NAHB senior economist of forecasting and analysis, provides more details in this Eye on Housing post.