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I heard the most wonderful economic news a few weeks ago.
While I was enjoying a cup of tea and catching up on emails, a news report was broadcast on the radio talking about Americans buying clothes again.
Now for the seasoned economist, I am sure this is boring news, but for me, a dining table economist, I thought it was great news. What led to my excitement was that when Mums treat the families clothing budget as discretionary, times are pretty tough.
My experience with my wife, mother and most ladies I know, is they will sacrifice their personal clothing budget to make sure their family is clothed. I would assume that means clothing is pretty important in their world, so when they start shopping again, I think it is big economic news (at least in my small world).
Topping that IMHO is the fact that sales in the Okanagan are clipping along at a healthy pace. While data will not be available for May for a few more weeks, the feeling on the street is we have a little momentum to keep us slightly ahead of the previous three years.
Most of the sales are still happening in the $500,000 and below domain, however, surprisingly, that is very similar to previous years rather than an anomaly. The graph below shows 4 years of sales, January to May for the various pricing categories.
With a little good fortune the volume of sales may increase as we head in to a busier time for the Okanagan with visitors from various provinces and countries - hopefully the sun may play host to their visits also!
Photo: Contributed
This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
