Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), Columbus, Ohio, this week released its monthly TRENDS report, showing the average sales performance by HARDI distributors was an increase of 3.6% percent during November.

The average annual sales growth for the 12 months through November 2020 is 3.2%.

“This month was warmer than normal and warmer than November 2019 in six of our seven economic regions,” said HARDI Market Research & Benchmarking Analyst Brian Loftus. “November is an important month for annual furnace sales, and the weather was not helping demand.”

The Days Sales Outstanding (DSO), a measure of how quickly customers pay their bills, is now at 44 days.

“The normal DSO for January is 48 days,” said Loftus. “It is increasing from the summer lows consistent with the normal annual pattern. One of many things that was unique about this year is how low DSO was this summer due to the unusually high share of cash transactions.

“It looks like the modest temps offset the strong housing market, but the recovery is far from over. The easy part of the recovery is behind us, but another economic surge is likely if the vaccines can prevent a COVID surge.”