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Non-Residential Real Estate Activity: “Slackening” in NY, “Mixed” to “Improving” Elsewhere
May’s Beige Book report, the Federal Reserve’s qualitative assessment of conditions across the country’s 12 Districts, suggested that economic growth over the last month was split between “modest and moderate” as shown in Table 1, although activity grew at a “solid pace” in Dallas. While most outlooks for growth were characterized as “upbeat,” the uncertainty of international trade policy still weighed on respondents’ minds, as did the impact of higher interest rates. Even as manufacturing “shifted into higher gear” (with more than half of the Districts reporting a pickup in industrial activity and a third of the Districts classifying activity as “strong”) consumer spending was lackluster; gasoline prices near $3/gallon may be somewhat to blame.