Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Consumer Buying Power vs. Confidence

There is a recent consumer report by Nielson Online that produced some unexpected insights on consumer buying power resulting from the economic downturn.
As expected, consumer confidence is way down. The unanticipated consequence of this economy is that some of us actually have increased purchasing power. The increase in purchasing power is due to a dip in gas and energy prices, tax rebates and historically low financing rates for those refinancing or purchasing within the conforming loan limits.
The report provides some hidden good news about our economy. You can read it for yourself; copy and paste the following into your web browser.
http://windermere.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.libraryHTMl&contentID=105898
Enjoy!

Bank Woes
If you perused the Business Section of the Sunday Times this weekend you found a wealth (no pun intended) of information about our local banks, and local banks under stress. The article is interesting and informative. It explains the criteria for determining a troubled bank and identifies local banks under stress. Perhaps not a 'feel good' read, but useful and practical information. To read the entire article, copy and paste the following into your browser.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/flatpages/businesstechnology/comparingwashingtonsbanks.html

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Customers buying power has definitely increased even in recession time. For example in real estate prices turned so low that people invested there savings in buying properties.
Highest cd rates