The economic environment for HVACR demand seems to be very good. Consumer confidence is high, and stories of homes selling quickly are common. Employment growth persists, and wages are improving. This Goldilocks scenario is very similar to the high points from last year when we were preparing the forecast. We thought the pent-up demand thesis still had some validity, but there would be a difficult comparison after the 2016 heat wave.
“The net result will be TRENDS sales growth near 6.5 percent in 2017,” was our conclusion last year. That will be very close to the actual result. Let’s see if we can duplicate that performance with our 2018 forecast.