Comments on: “How About Tomorrow?”

By: David Merkel

David Merkel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:53:24 +0000

Back to Bill, the repair guys at my dealer said it was a slow period because of the recent spate of warm weather. Cars perform better then, and people put off maintenance because they have more to do. Things are booked for them for the next six days. So there — they said repair work was pretty normal, but that normal could include a lot of volatility.

By: PaulinKansasCity

PaulinKansasCity — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 20:40:49 +0000

In the Kansas City area real estate seems soft to me; especially in the growing suburb of Lee’s Summit where I live. Pulte homes had a large subdivision being built near me and buying appears dead to me and they are supposedly leaving the area. There are a lot of homes for sale in my subdivision (which also baost a private lake for waterskiing). I have a hard time guessing how much retail traffic has slowed; it appears some. MY friends that own a jeweler business; business was flat ompared 2006; weather did slow down retail taffic; but other jewelers in the area had 10% to 20% declines in some cases. They feel people are tigher with the money; but that seems obvious to me.

By: Max

Max — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Scheduling is getting easier but, prices are not coming down. I also don’t see more unrepaired auto damage than usual or apparent repairs needed elsewhere but, not being done. So, this is a kind of an intermediate slowdown.

After reading you comment, Doodad, let me say that I don’t expect any better than that from you. Wanna know how long ago you disappeared from my bookmarks?

By: David Merkel

David Merkel — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 18:09:14 +0000

I live on the DC side of Baltimore. In general, things have been going pretty well, but after doing well for some time, the real estate market is softening even here. I know a variety of realtors, and they are all seeing volume slow, and prices start to sag.

I have a fairly good feel for business activity in my area, and while nothing has seemed bad, things have been slowing. A lot of that is qualitative “feel” from talking with people; that’s not a lightweight thing necessarily. The Wal-Mart is hopping, but we went on a good day, the upscale mall was kinda dead, but we went on a bad day. Those observations I can’t use as data. I am sensitive to alternative explanations; there just did not seem to be one in this case.

The post was a request for anyone else with data to post. Sometimes, I’m just curious as to what others are seeing. More eyes are better than just mine. I’ll ask my dealer on the seasonality/staffing issues.

By: Bill aka NO DooDahs!

Bill aka NO DooDahs! — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 17:27:33 +0000

Where y’at? “Slowing” would get different answers in Lipscomb county vs. Williamson county (both TX), and I’m certain that the disconnect between those two counties has zero to do with macro trends in the U.S.

How does your dealership handle their holiday schedule? Do they clear out their books of work so that their employees can be with their families, and thus have a traditional empty spot in the first two weeks of the year?

How does the average person handle vehicle upkeep? Is there a seasonal trend that needs to be accounted for?

How does this compare to this time of year in other years?

Seriously, the lack of critical thought in this post reminds me of Barry. I expect more from you, David.