The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis said recently that overall, conditions in and around Louisville are slowly improving, but employment has lagged behind thus far. They issued their report in their quarterly assessment. They said that manufacturing, housing markets and auto sales are improving in Louisville and nearby areas such as Southern Indiana, Elizabethtown, Bowling Green, Owensboro and Evansville, IN. Southern Indiana and the western half of Kentucky are part of the St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank. The Fed also reported that January 2010 building permits issued in the area rose by larger percentages than the national average, with permits up by 55 percent in Louisville and a whopping 237 percent in Elizabethtown. In addition, the Fed said that home prices in each area either made modest gains or trended slightly lower, but decreased less than the national average for the last quarter of 2009. The fact that employment was down overall in the region with every sector but government and education/health services losing jobs has toned down the Fed’s enthusiasm. Nevertheless, manufacturing, an employment sector hit especially hard by the economic downturn, showed modest gains recently, and the Fed expected that trend to continue. The Fed report stated that commercial real estate in Louisville continued to lag behind residential real estate sales as industrial vacancies downtown and suburban office vacancies rose. With commercial real estate trending downward and residential real estate showing modest gains, now is a good time to take advantage of Louisville real estate market conditions. For the area’s best selection of residential and commercial real estate, call Louisville Properties today at 502.744.9504.