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Diamond Engagement Ring Average Sale Climbs Up to 20% for Q4 ‘20: Analyst March 23, 2021 (0 comments)

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Ramat Gan, Israel—New research from diamond industry analyst Edahn Golan found the average spend of a diamond engagement ring rose as much as 20 percent to $3,726 in the fourth quarter of 2020. The figure averaged the retail prices of tens of thousands of diamond engagement rings sold in the United States during October, November, and December of last year. 

Golan says this figure is higher than recent years’ averages—which have held fairly steady around $3100 to $3200—and believes the pandemic is part of the reason behind it, with consumers’ unspent travel and experience dollars being funneled into jewelry. He anticipates DER prices will drop back to prior levels once consumers return to normal spending patterns after the pandemic.

It should be emphasized that Golan's average figure takes into account all kinds of stores, from mass merchants to upscale independents. Meanwhile, TheKnot.com--which typically is higher than the overall industry average--put the cost of an average engagement ring in 2020 at $5,500. While a little lower than recent years (TheKnot pegged the average DER at $5,900 in 2019), it's also not a national average. Bridal brand Ritani told Business Insider in early 2020 (before the pandemic) that typical ring spends varied by geography; the highest was $10,109 in Washington state and the lowest was $3,005 in South Dakota, while the Mid-Atlantic region as a whole spends the highest average ($7,600).

Related: The Knot Annual Engagement Ring Study For 2021

As for the “how much should you spend” guideline, Golan says forget about the two or three months’ salary guideline. By his calculations using U.S. Census Bureau income figures, the average spend is equal to between 1.1 and 1.3 months’ salary. 

TheKnot agrees: One fourth of respondents to its study were planning to spend between $1,000 and $3,000--and of those, 11% were planning to spend less than $1,000.

Golan also observed that prices of engagement rings with lab-grown diamonds were up sharply year-on-year in 2020. In 2019, consumers could count on a lab-grown engagement ring saving them about 20% at retail; this year, the price difference between mined and manmade was a mere 9%—and lab-grown only accounted for about 2.9% of sales.

Read Golan's full report here.

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