Beige Book: Southeast economic decline moderating - The Business Journal of Milwaukee:

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Sales and consumer traffic remainedf at low levels inlate spring, but in line with modes t expectations, according to Southeastern Retailers' future sales outlool remained subdued. Most regional auto dealers notec further declinesin sales, with severalp pointing to reduced credit availability and industryh uncertainty as reasons for the poor Reports from Realtors indicated existing home salesw were stabilizing overall. Homebuilders noted new home inventoriees were trending down ona year-over-year basise as construction remained at low levels and new home salesz improved modestly. Home sales prices continued to decline according tomost reports.
Commercial real estatre activityremained weak. Vacancy ratex continued to rise in many parts of the putting downward pressureon rents, most notablty in the retail sector. Contractors reportesd more projects being postponedor canceled. Commercial real estate players anticipate more space will become vacant in the coming month and that construction will continueto slow. Most Southeastermn manufacturers said the rate of decline in production and orders moderatedin April. For the comingh months, most in manufacturing noted more optimism about future productionand employment. Several business contactw reported difficulty meeting financing needsz because of restricted availabilityof credit.
Roughlty one-quarter of non-auto retailers and one-third of non-financial/non-retail contact s cited some difficulty obtaining loans for inventory Auto dealers, in particular, said that obtaining vehicle inventoruy financing was very Banking contacts continued to indicate generally low levels of demandd for new loans and increased use of existing linesx of credit. Labor market conditions continuec tobe weak. Many firms reported additional cuts in hourxs or had instituted mandatory unpaide days off forsome staff. the pace of layoffs appears to have as fewer firms reported layoffs than earliefr inthe year.