Early on we told you that fear was a catalyst of the recession. We predicted once consumers started to see things stabilizing, fear would subside. We are happy to report that we are starting to see signs of stabilization in our economy and it indeed is affecting consumer confidence in a positive way. We talked with President and CEO of The Heartland Partnership Jim McConoughey about the signs of stabilization. 

click video icon to watch interview with Jim McConoughey

Retail sales are slightly increasing, home sales are forecasted to increase and unemployment is flat. We realize this is not a significantly improving economy, but it's not deteriorating either. Flat is the new up.

For many years Americans were over spending but now we are starting to see people spending the right amount of money for what they have as income. We experienced a major drop in durable goods purchases during the recession, but people are starting to make those purchases again. People are looking long term and they are willing to spend again.
This is great news for businesses because it means sales are returning, but it's also great news for municipalities because it means the sales tax base is returning.
We focus on a couple areas when looking at our regional economy. Besides retail, we consider housing values. In this region, values remain steady. New home sale values are coming back in line with what we're used to seeing and the incentives for first time home buyers was a tremendous help. People are starting to feel better about financing and interest rates. All of that news created positive forecasts on sales for 2010.
While both retail and housing are positive there is a negative side. Unemployment (which is an indicator of regional productivity) is high. The regional average for 2009 was at 10.1%. There is no indication that this number will be falling anytime soon. However we haven't seen major increases since July, so we look at this as an indication of stabilization.