Tag Archives: economy

Solid demand and steadily increasing home prices have been two of the  biggest housing headlines in 2017. To learn more about housing trends this year and predictions going into 2018, Hardware Retailing spoke with George Ratiu, director of quantitative and commercial …

Chad Moutray is the chief economist for the National Association of Manufacturers and develops forecasts for the manufacturing sector. He previously worked as the chief economist and director of economic research for the Office of Advocacy at the U.S. Small …

Retailers across the country are gearing up for a busy holiday sales season, with sales projected to be 3.6 to 4 percent higher than last year, the National Retail Federation (NRF) reports. That increased spending can add up for independent …

The U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) announced its decision last week that U.S. solar panel manufacturers are negatively impacted by imported solar panels, specifically from Mexico and Korea. According to the report, the ITC will hold a public hearing on remedy on …

Republican leaders in Congress proposed a plan Wednesday to reform the U.S. tax code, The New York Times reports. According to the newspaper, the GOP tax reform plan calls for reduced taxes for the wealthy, the middle class and businesses and preserves …

U.S. consumer confidence rose in the second quarter of 2017, showing a nearly 25 percent increase over year-to-year 2016 levels. Prices of existing home sales also continued to climb, buoyed by a June 2017 peak.  The Consumer Confidence Index rose …

According to Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies, Americans are expected to spend $316 billion on home improvement upgrades this year, reports The Wall Street Journal. Because of this growth in home improvement spending, home improvement retailers have continued to …

A June 2017 Harvard Business Review study finds that shuttered retail spaces can lead to an increase in crime and theft in their immediate vicinity. However, an operational store can provide communities roughly $30,000 annually in social benefits by reducing crime and …