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U.S. Retail Sales Rise 6% on Day After Thanksgiving

By Courtney Dentch

Nov. 25 (Bloomberg) — U.S. retail sales rose 6 percent to $8.96 billion yesterday, the first day of the holiday shopping season, as discounts and lower gasoline costs encouraged consumers to buy more gifts, according to ShopperTrak RCT.

The increase may give retailers reason to be “cautiously optimistic” about this year’s holiday sales, Chicago-based ShopperTrak said today in a statement. The last quarter of year accounts for almost one-third of U.S. retailers’ annual profits.

“This data shows an even larger increase than expected as consumers proved they were more willing to spend,” Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak, said in the statement. The firm measures foot traffic in shopping centers and malls using more than 45,000 video devices.

The day after Thanksgiving, called “Black Friday” because it was the day retailers traditionally expected to turn profitable for the year, has been the second- or third-busiest shopping day in past years. Stores kicked off the holiday season yesterday with early openings and discounts to win customers.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, opened at 5 a.m. yesterday with 42-inch plasma televisions for less than $1,000 and cashmere sweaters for $29, sales that lasted the first six hours of the day. It put other electronics on sale three weeks ago, and has reduced prices on toys, small appliances and food.

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based retailer said today its November sales at U.S. stores open more than a year fell 0.1 percent, the worst performance in more than a decade.

Discounts, Stunts

Target Corp., the second-biggest U.S. discounter, hired magician David Blaine to escape from shackles holding him to a spinning gyroscope five stories above New York’s Times Square to promote a two-day sale that started yesterday.

Kmart, a unit of Hoffman Estates, Illinois-based Sears Holdings Corp. was open on Thanksgiving Day and offered discounts on games and cameras.

ShopperTrak said earlier this month that it expects Dec. 23, the Saturday before Christmas, to be the biggest shopping day of 2006. The firm estimates consumers will spend $457 billion during the holidays, up 5 percent from last year.

A drop in oil prices in recent weeks may have contributed to yesterday’s increase. Oil has traded between $54.86 and $61.33 a barrel this month because above-average temperatures in the northern U.S. have delayed demand for heating products. Crude oil hit a record $78.40 a barrel in July.

The price of unleaded gasoline at the pump averaged $2.24 a gallon earlier this week, down 26 percent from $3.04 in August, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

ShopperTrak’s figures exclude discount stores, such as Wal- Mart, and Internet transactions. It also uses U.S. Commerce Department data.

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PS: Yes you did, here’s what you wrote when AN asked you if you truly believe that S&P will drop to 600:

“… I truly believe this, so I put my money where my mouth is…”

Unless I’m reading it wrong.

[nla]

S&P 500 closed at 1,406.09 today, 806.09 points more to go before it will reach 600.

[nla]

The LA Times report on DQNews lists the price per square foot:

http://www.dqnews.com/ZIPLAT.shtm

On the latest report, CV has 1.215M median price for SFR and the price per sqft is $399. That would tell us that the median size is about 3,045 sqft.

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San Diego has a lot of distressed neigborhoods: National City, San Ysidro, Encanto and most of SE San Diego, Old/West Chula Vista, La Presa, etc.

[nla]

I happen to know Dawn Lewis. She’s a very succesful agent in Eastlake area. She was the salesagent when we purchased our first home from KB Home in 1999 and she also lived few houses away from us before. Before the housing boom she left KB and became an independent realtor.
-peace

[nla]

My sister is a nurse who visit clients at their home and one of her client resides in her daughter’s HUGE house in Bonita. The client daughter is a mortgage broker and she told my sister that she haven’t closed a deal in 3 months.

Some observations on my street:
1. One house has been on the market for about 4 months, original price listing is 975K, current asking price is 875K.
2. Another house (same floorplan) has been on the market for about 3 months. Original price listing is 975K. Changed agent few times, current asking price is 879K.
3. A bigger house (about 3,500 sqft) was just listed at 1.1M to 1.2M few weeks ago and was sold in a week (I saw the SOLD sign). This house has mucho upgrade and has bigger lot, pool, gazebo and a view.
4. There were other houses that went for sale but were taken off the market after several months. Either there were no offers or the seller were not getting the desired price.

Also several blocks from me is the Davidson new developmet (Atrium). When they opened, the houses are all 1M and above. Now, they’re selling in the high 900K and above.

BTW, I live in the newer neighborhood of Eastlake.

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Does anybody know how often they update this site? I checked my street and my next door neighbor who just bought his house last year has overdue taxes between 2 properties amounting to about $11,000. He’s a mortgage loan broker of some sort. I hope he’s doing OK financially. He bought his house for almost a million.

-peace

[nla]

I think EB is the internet lingo for meetup. EB stands for Eye Ball.

-peace

[nla]

Mine went as high as 960,000 few months ago, then it went down to as low as 900,000. Right now it’s on 918,000.
-peace

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