This Looks Familiar

The Federal Reserve released on Wednesday its every-six-weeks anecdotal take on the national economy called The Beige Book. Here's a grab-bag of ultimately meh numbers for New York City:

• Broadway theaters report that business "improved moderately" in July and early August compared to the six weeks before. Attendance and ticket revenues increased 1 to 2 percent annually in July and 3 percent in the first half of August.
• Average Manhattan apartment asking rents declined 2 to 4 percent in July and August compared to the same months last year (more on falling rents here). And: "The rental vacancy rate, though still below 2 percent, is reported to have climbed noticeably over the past year."
• More home sales are falling through due to tighter financing. The sales markets in Brooklyn and Queens were worse for sellers than in Manhattan.
• The number of construction permits issued in June for multi-family buildings was four times greater than in the same month in 2007. And the first half of 2008 saw 63 percent more multi-family building permits issued than the first half of 2007.
• Hotel occupancy rates in Manhattan remained at nearly 90 percent nightly in July, "which is typically a relatively slow month. Room rates were up 10 percent annually, and "preliminary indications for August suggest continued strength."

So the anecdotes and the statistics suggest a summer city economy that wasn't particularly perilous nor serenely robust--it was about how it was in the spring.

But The Beige Book did warn of trouble, though these signs were, too, familiar: "[B]ankers report weakening demand for both residential and commercial mortgages, widespread declines in refinancing activity, continued tightening in credit standards, and increasing delinquency rates on home mortgages."