Consumer Buying Continues Despite Housing Slowdown

For the past several years consumers have financed their discretionary buying by extracting exquity from their homes via refinance or lines of credit. With the recent turndown in housing prices and sales many have speculated that retailers would be the first to feel the pinch of the consumers restricted access to cash.

However sales results from the first few days of this holiday shopping season seem to tell a different story and perhaps point to continued retail strength in 2007. The NRF reports that retail sales are up over 18% from the same period of a year ago. Over 140 million shoppers spent over  $360.00 each on average over the Turkey day weekend.

Economists point to low unemployment and rising wages as the key to ongoing retail strength. Mega retailer Wal-Mart has taken a rare backward step with sub par sales results for the Black Friday rush but perhaps that is good news for the nation's small and independnet retailers.

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