Some Insight on the Antiques Biz from Google Trends

If you have your ear to the business, you have a sense that traditional furnishings are out and the modern and eclectic “vintage” look is in. There’s no discounting the fact that prices of antique furniture in particular has waned in the past 20 years or so, and there’s no indication interest is increasing. But has vintage taken over?

To find out, we took a look at Google Trends. And its still the antiquey-related words that tend to come out on top.

When comparing the words midcentury (whichever way you spell it), Colonial and Victorian, midcentury is at the bottom, with Victorian in the middle. The top states for midcentury searches are California, Oregon and Washington. Victorian searches tend to hail from Pennsylvania, Maine and Ohio while the searches for Colonial are coming from Virginia, Delaware and South Carolina.

Indeed these terms can relate to other things besides decorative objects, vintage goods, antiques and art.

So we looked for antiques show, vintage market and flea market. With a wide and long-standing appeal, flea markets are on top, followed by antique show and finally vintage markets. Flea markets are searched for most in Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee. Antique show makes its way onto searches most often in Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts. Oklahoma, Missouri and Arizona search for vintage markets most often.

More insight comes from popular television shows. States where antiques and vintage are most popular don’t line up with the places where the television shows are most popular. The top state for searches for Antiques Roadshow is New Mexico. For American Pickers, its Iowa. Pawn Stars is expectedly Nevada. Storage Wars is most popular in North Dakota. The word vintage is most searched for in Oklahoma, California and Washington and for antiques its Northeastern states.

The top cities for antiques are Nashville, St Louis, Louisville, Atlanta, Portland and Boston. For vintage its Portland, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Austin, New York and Seattle. We also checked modern vs. traditional. The bigger cities tend to prefer modern and San Francisco likes both terms, but oddly ranks higher for traditional. Texas has a lock-up on Country Chic. The top cities for that are Austin, Houston, Charlotte, Dallas, San Antonio and Atlanta. Shabby Chic searches are more common in Los Angeles. If you’re looking for used furniture, you are most likely in Tampa.

The top ebay state? Kentucky. Top for etsy? Tennessee.

Oh, and shabby chic gives midcentury serious competition in much of the country, but searches for Victorian outnumber both.