If you want to know how healthy the economy is, just watch the consumer. The US economy is one-third manufacturing driven and two-thirds consumer driven, and consumer spending depends on personal income. When the consumer spends, businesses grow, causing them to lease additional space and open new locations, causing demand for new warehouses for distribution and manufacturing and benefiting many sectors of commercial real estate.
Just out today is personal income for March 2012, which rose 0.4 percent, showing a tepid but healthy consumer.
Personal income increased $50.3 billion, or 0.4 percent in March. In February, personal income increased $39.6 billion, or 0.3 percent, based on revised estimates which are often changed by billions of dollars. The January personal income estimate was 26.5 billion and revised to 36.8 billion, a change of 10.3 billion but only increasing the percent change from 0.2 percent to 0.3 percent.
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Revisions In Personal Income |
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| January 2012 Previous | January Revised | February 2012 Previous | February Revised | |
| Percent | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.2 | 0.3 |
| Dollars | 26.5 | 36.8 | 28.2 | 39.6 |
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis
