Consumer confidence high in Southeast, index shows
Consumer confidence grew in the Southeast during the second half of this year and remained stronger than the national outlook, according to a report released today by Raleigh-based RBC Centura.
The RBC CASH Index, a survey of consumer attitudes benchmarked against a score of 100, put consumer confidence at 99.8 between July and December of this year. That's an increase of 0.3 points over January to June and a sharp rise from a score of 74 for the last six months of 2005, when Hurricane Katrina dampened consumers' attitudes toward the region's economy, personal finance, savings, investments and job security.
Consumer confidence in the Southeast - Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas and Virginia - tends to surpass that of consumers nationwide on the RBC Index, and the past six months have been no exception. National consumer confidence, as measured by RBC, stands at 85.4 - 14.4 points less than in this region.
After the jump, a breakdown of the index ...
Southeastern consumers feel more confidence about future financial prospects and job security, but they backslid in their attitudes about the housing market, the local economy and major spending and saving during the past six months, according to the index report.
The housing market took a notable knock, with a 13 percent change in consumer confidence about buying real estate. During the last six months of this year, 39 percent of consumers judged the market as favorable to buyers, compared to 45 percent during the first half of 2006, according to a news release from RBC Centura.
Consumers also felt more trepidation about major purchases during the latter half of the year, and that was reflected in the RBC Current Conditions Index, which measured Southeastern residents' feelings about the local economy and their own finances. That index stood at 113.7 during the last six months, down from 117.6 during the first half of the year. But confidence in the local economy has grown dramatically since this time last year, when the index stood at 96.5 and consumers were struggling to manage high energy costs in the wake of Katrina and other hurricanes.
Click here to compare consumer confidence in the Southeast to the national numbers.
The most recent RBC index report was conducted by conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs and includes 6,004 national interviews and 908 regional interviews. The margin of error for the national index is plus or minus 1.3 points. The regional margin is plus or minus 3.3 points.
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