Market Insights

An annual report by Marcus and Millichap, a real estate investment and brokerage firm, showed a drop in the nationwide vacancy rate for retail properties, from 10.2% last year to the current 10%, according to an

Having worked heavily with marketing research for more than 30 years, I know just how useful it can be to make better business decisions, but like all tools there are limitations.

Orlando, Fla. -- The annual Housing and Economic Outlook at the 2011 International Builders' Show had some relatively good news for attendees.

The National Association of Realtors (NAR), an association with a reputation for housing market optimism, expects gains in new and existing home sales and housing starts in 2011. Among the forecasts presented in the • New home sales are estimated to rise 24% to 392,000 in 2011;

New home sales in March increased to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000, according to data released today by the Department of Commerce.

The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index increased slightly to 65.4 in April, up from 63.8 in March, and up from 57.7 in April 2010.

The U.S. Census Bureau announced that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for February were $387.1 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. That's up 1.0% from $383.4 billion in the previous month, and up 8.2% from $355.6 billion in the same month last year.

Sales of new single-family houses in January 2011 were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 284,000, The pace is 12.6% below the revised December rate of 325,000. January sales were 18.6% below the January 2010 estimate of 349,000.

  The unemployment rate fell by 0.4 percentage points to 9.4% in December, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

While more than one-third of Americans are aware of the federal phaseout of incandescent light bulbs, the majority of consumers have yet to learn that the 100-watt bulb is scheduled to disappear from store shelves beginning in 2012.

Pending home sales are down in January for the second straight month, and are down 1.5% compared with the January 2010 figure, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The Census Bureau's Monthly Retail Trade Report  showed sales for hardware stores -- NAICS code 44413 -- were $1.212 billion on an unadjusted basis in February, the most recent month of available data in this business classification.