Survey: Missourians ready to make major purchases

While fewer Missouri consumers plan to make major purchases than earlier in 2016, they’re still more eager to buy than in previous years, according to the third phase of Arvest Bank’s fall Consumer Sentiment Survey released this morning.

Missouri respondents indicate 35 percent of residents plan to make such large purchases in the next six months as furniture, televisions and refrigerators. That’s down from 40 percent in March when Arvest released its spring survey results. Nineteen percent of respondents said they were waiting to make a purchase, which is down from 21 percent in March, according to a news release.

“It is not a large decrease, per se,” said Missouri State University Bureau of Economic Research Director David Mitchell, who was retained by Arvest to analyze the survey results, in the release. “This is especially true when comparing the two 2016 readings to the first reading in late 2014, where only one in four households was planning on a major purchase.”

Mitchell added the ratio of households planning major purchases remained mostly constant from when Arvest started the survey until late 2015. This year, the numbers have improved.

“This indicates that households are more optimistic about long-run prospects than they were at this point last year,” he said in the release.

Arvest’s survey conducted twice a year examines the outlook of residents in Missouri, Oklahoma and Arkansas. The regional average for consumers who plan to make pa urchase in the next six months was 35 percent. Arkansas tied Missouri, with Oklahoma coming in at 36 percent.

Conducted by the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas Sam W. Walton College of Business, the study analyzes the results of 1,200 random phone and online surveys performed by the University of Oklahoma’s public opinion learning laboratory. The survey asks respondents to evaluate their current and future finances, business conditions, major household purchase plans, consumer debt, savings and demographics.