By Maxine Shapiro, KERA 90.1 business commentator
Dallas, TX – It's Friday so "It's Only Money," a review of the big and not-so-big stories of the week. I'm Maxine Shapiro with KERA Marketplace Midday.
We were barely drinking our second glass of eggnog when the word spread across the land that this very well could be the worse holiday shopping season in about thirty years. Yah? It's still expected to be up 3.5 to 4% from last year. That's good. Retailers, be grateful you're not in Germany, where they had its worst year in retail since World War II. But let's look at what really matters. My family actually stayed within the budget. Not counting those last minute oh-you-deserve-just-one-more-thing presents. In fact, most of the people I talked to feel they spent responsibly this year.
So, stating the most obvious, it's been a downbeat year for most industries - except housing. November sales of new single-family homes rose 5.7% to the highest level on record. Analysts were expecting a downturn of seven-tenths of a percent. Wrong again. One of these days they're going to be right. Oh, they'll stand tall and proudly announce, "See, I told you so - the housing market bubble burst." They've wanted to say this for a very long time. But years later, with mortgage rates at a record low, I would actually like to see a little downtrend. It would make the fall less hard to bear - whenever that happens.
And there's one community in the Metroplex that has seen a significant rise in both housing and retail - Frisco. According to the Frisco Economic Development Corporation, revenue from sales tax in 1991 was a little over $550,000. 2001 - almost $17.5 million. When it comes to Frisco, I believe retail came before housing, when it should be housing before retail.
And in one of the smartest financial moves since taking office, President Bush decided that maybe he ought to wait to give the huge tax break to highest earners in the country. His friends might be a little upset, but chances for the stimulus package getting passed are much higher now. For KERA Marketplace Midday, I'm Maxine Shapiro.
Marketplace Midday Reports air on KERA 90.1 Monday - Friday at 1:04 p.m. To contact Maxine Shapiro, please send emails to mshapiro@kera.org.