|
Bill Walker conducts a foreclosure auction at the building formerly occupied The recession has been hardest on retailers such as the former Gallahans Furniture store in Spotsylvania County. |
The segments of the local retail market that are tied to the housing market have taken perhaps the biggest hit during the recession.
Sales of furniture/home furnishings and building materials have suffered the worst of the declines in the Fredericksburg area, Christine Chmura told about 210 area business and government leaders during the Fredericksburg Regional Alliance's annual meeting Monday.
She is president of Richmond-based Chmura Economics & Analytics.
Second-quarter sales data from the Virginia Department of Taxation bear out Chmura's message Monday. The second-quarter figures are the latest available.
Taxable sales at furniture and home furnishings stores in the city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford and Spotsylvania were $14.5 million in the three months ending this past June 30. That's a 53.2 percent decline from the taxable sales for that business segment in those three localities during the second quarter of 2006, when housing prices were peaking.
The declines for furniture and home furnishings sales have moderated since then, but were still down 42.7 percent for the three-locality area in the second quarter from the same period in 2007 and 28.9 percent from the same period in 2008.
It's a similar story in the business segment labeled "Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers." Second-quarter 2009 taxable sales for the three-locality area in that segment declined 42.6 percent from the same period in 2006, 30.7 percent from 2007 and 8.6 percent from 2008.
One bright spot for building material sales is a 15.6 percent increase in Stafford between the second quarters of 2008 and 2009. Stafford has been seeing an increase in residential building permits this year, perhaps due in part to the new jobs coming to the Quantico Marine Corps Base in 2011.
Though building materials and home furnishings have been among the most affected by the recession, they're not alone. Overall taxable sales declined in the three-locality area 12.2 percent between the second quarters of 2006 and 2009. Taxable sales during this year's second quarter fell in that area 7.4 percent from 2007 and 4.3 percent from 2008.
The city of Fredericksburg has been the hardest-hit area locality, due largely to the buildup of shopping centers in Stafford and Spotsylvania that compete with Central Park. The city's $197 million in second-quarter 2009 taxable sales is a decline of 24.8 percent from 2006, 20.7 percent from 2007 and 10 percent from 2008.
Stafford's overall taxable sales during the second quarter were about flat from the same period in 2008, while Spotsylvania's declined just 3.1 percent.
The declines have had numerous effects on both the private and public sectors.
They've caused some retailers to go out of business, which has driven up local vacancy rates, put pressure on commercial rents, increased the number of unemployed workers and led to some concern about rising commercial foreclosures.
The sales-tax declines have also pressured the budgets of state and local governments. Virginia's sales tax rate is 5 percent--4 percent to the state and 1 percent to the locality in which the tax was collected. Some of the state portion funds local education budgets.
Bill Freehling: 540/374-5405
Email: bfreehling@freelancestar.com
|
A spreadsheet showing quarterly taxable sales data back to 2006 for every area locality is at Fredericksburg .com/blogs/bizbrowser. You can also find a link to sales tax data from the Virginia Department of Taxation. |
