More Good Economic News But How Will it Affect Upstate South Carolina Real Estate?

The Institute for Supply Management just reported that economic activity in the manufacturing sector expanded in July for the 12th consecutive month, and the overall economy grew for the 15th consecutive month!

Just look at some of the good news in the ISM report:

• Manufacturers' inventories grew for the first time following three consecutive months of contraction
• ISM's Employment Index registered 58.6 percent in July, which is 0.8 percentage point higher than the 57.8 percent reported in June. This is the eighth consecutive month of growth in manufacturing employment.
• ISM's Production Index registered 57 percent in July. An index above 51 percent, over time, is generally consistent with an increase in the Federal Reserve Board's Industrial Production figures. This is the 14th consecutive month the Production Index has registered above 50 percent.
• Manufacturing continued to grow in July as the PMI registered 55.5 percent. A reading above 50 percent indicates that the manufacturing economy is generally expanding; below 50 percent indicates that it is generally contracting.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Monday in a speech to an annual meeting of lawmakers in South Carolina that the nation faces a long road back to good economic health but the worst of the financial crisis is behind the nation and the economy is growing again. Which worries me, considering how wrong Bernanke has been in the past.....

Sure, the growth is slow, and unemployment has been high all year. We all read the reports from the economists saying that unemployment is going to stay that way for awhile. So most consumers are holding back on their spending, and who can blame them?

And that includes real estate in Upstate South Carolina. Or it would seem that way until you look at the Upstate South Carolina Real Estate Market Indicators June 2010 report on my website and see that YTD Closed Sales are actually up compared to last year. Of course the number of Closed Sales is still below the levels of 2008, but hey I am trying to be positive here!

Maybe, just maybe we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel and it isn't a train getting ready to run us over.