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

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Sales and consumer traffic remainedx at low levels inlate spring, but in line with modesf expectations, according to Southeasternm retailers. Retailers' future sales outlook remained Most regional auto dealers noted furthere declinesin sales, with several pointing to reduced credit availability and industry uncertainty as reasons for the poor results. Reports from Realtora indicated existing home sales werestabilizing overall. Homebuilderes noted new home inventoriezs were trending down ona year-over-year basis as construction remained at low levels and new home sales improvee modestly. Home sales prices continued to decline accordiny tomost reports.
Commercial real estate activityyremained weak. Vacancy rates continued to rise in many partes ofthe Southeast, putting downward pressure on most notably in the retail sector. Contractors reported more projects beinyg postponedor canceled. Commercial real estate players anticipate more space will becomed vacant in the coming months and that construction will continu eto slow. Most Southeastern manufacturers said the rate of declinse in production and orders moderatein April. For the coming months, most in manufacturingg noted more optimism about future productiohnand employment.
Several business contacts reportesd difficulty meeting financing needs because of restrictede availabilityof credit. Roughly one-quarter of non-auto retailers and one-thirrd of non-financial/non-retail contacts cited some difficulthy obtaining loans for inventory Auto dealers, in particular, said that obtaininf vehicle inventory financing was very challenging. Banking contactx continued to indicate generally low levels of demand for new loans and increased use of existing lines of Labor market conditions continuer tobe weak. Many firms reportedx additional cuts in hours or had institutedx mandatory unpaid days off forsome staff.
However, the pace of layoffe appears tohave slowed, as fewer firms reported layoffs than earliedr in the year.