WASHINGTON, DC—The Federal Reserve begins its periodic release of Beige Book economic reports in 2016 with a survey that finds the reporting districts "generally upbeat" as economic activity has expanded in nine of the Districts since the previous Beige Book report.
Consumer spending grew somewhat, as did nonfinancial services. Manufacturing, unfortunately, weakened from the previous Beige Book release. For GlobeSt.com's readers, the news is good: real estate sectors continued to show improvement.
Workers, though, will find little to cheer about in this report, other than the indications in the report that job growth continues. The report noted that labor markets continued to improve, with four districts -- New York, Cleveland, Atlanta, and Minneapolis Districts -- mentioning "signs of labor market tightening".
But still wage increases are "running flat to minimal." The exceptions are New York and San Francisco, which "indicated some acceleration in upward wage pressures."
Real Estate Sector
For the commercial real estate sector, most reporting Districts characterized nonresidential real estate activity "as modest to moderate". Specifically:
- Boston and New York indicated little change.
- The Dallas District noted high levels of industrial construction in Dallas-Fort Worth.
- The Atlanta District expects construction activity to increase slightly.
- Philadelphia, St. Louis, Minneapolis, and Richmond Districts expect overall commercial real estate activity to continue to strengthen at least modestly.
The next Beige Book will be released March 2.
Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.
Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:
- Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
- Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
- Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
Already have an account? Sign In Now
*May exclude premium content© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
Erika Morphy
Erika Morphy has been writing about commercial real estate at GlobeSt.com for more than ten years, covering the capital markets, the Mid-Atlantic region and national topics. She's a nerd so favorite examples of the former include accounting standards, Basel III and what Congress is brewing.
