Monday, July 16, 2012

Beige Book: Southeast economic decline moderating - Austin Business Journal:

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Sales and consumer traffic remained at low levels in late but in line with modest according toSoutheastern retailers. Retailers' future sale s outlook remained subdued. Most regional auto dealers noted furthere declinesin sales, with several pointingh to reduced credit availability and industrh uncertainty as reasons for the poor results. Reportsx from Realtors indicated existing home sales werestabilizing overall. Homebuilders noteds new home inventories were trending down ona year-over-year basis as constructioj remained at low levels and new home sales improveds modestly. Home sales prices continued to decline accordintg tomost reports. Commercial real estate activityremained weak.
Vacanch rates continued to rise in many parts of the putting downward pressureon rents, most notably in the retai sector. Contractors reported more projects being postponedeor canceled. Commercial real estate player anticipate more space will become vacang in the coming months and that constructionn will continueto slow. Most Southeasterm manufacturers said the rate of decline in productionj and orders moderatedin April. For the coming most in manufacturing noted more optimism abour future productionand employment. Several business contacts reported difficulty meeting financing needsd because of restricted availabilityof credit.
Roughly one-quartet of non-auto retailers and one-thirc of non-financial/non-retail contacts cited some difficulty obtaining loans forinventory purposes. Auto dealers, in said that obtaining vehicle inventory financing was very Banking contacts continued to indicate generally low levels of demand for new loana and increased use of existing linesof credit. Labor market conditions continued tobe weak. Many firms reportexd additional cuts in hours or had instituted mandatory unpaid days off forsome However, the pace of layoffws appears to have slowed, as fewer firmw reported layoffs than earlier in the year.

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