You can still buy a sofa for $399 — here’s why you may not want to

Don't expect the sofa you buy today to go the distance.

"In the last 15 years, there's been a shift to disposable furniture," according to David Koehler, chairman of Johnny Janosik, a furniture retailer with stores in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia.

For most consumers, that's okay. Attitudes have changed, said Koehler, who is a member of the Home Furnishings Association.

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Young adults, especially, are less likely to be homeowners and more likely to move often. They're also more likely to feel financially strapped and less willing to splurge on furniture, Koehler said.

However, "the old expression, 'you get what you pay for,' is very true in the furniture industry," he said.

A decadeslong effort to mass produce furniture at a lower cost has led to a decline in quality, overall, experts say.

The rapid expansion of the middle class after World War II made owning a home easier and drove demand for less expensive home furniture, according to CoCo Ree Lemery, a visiting professor of furniture and industrial design at Purdue University.

"We were introduced to plywood. Then we really saw a material degradation," Lemery said of the rise in popularity of the composite material made from gluing together thin pieces of wood veneer.

Medium density fiberboard, which is another form of engineered wood commonly known as MDF, followed, and then particle board, or recycled wood chips fused together, along with synthetic foams and glues to keep production more affordable.

In each case, substitute materials were used to make furniture that was less expensive