Reports out Tuesday show auto sales and factory orders are up nationwide, but unemployment remains stubbornly high.
One local expert says the Grand Strand economy will continue its slow recovery this year. But there are some troubling signs ahead, like higher gas prices and a slow housing market.
Paul Moore, a Myrtle Beach resident, is not optimistic. "It seems to be a lot of unemployment, a lot of people looking for jobs."
But Roxanne Hornung, also of Myrtle Beach, says, "I'm very optimistic. I think things are going in the right direction this year."
Economist Rob Salvino, with Coastal Carolina University, says the Grand Strand economy will move forward in one critical area, tourism, and will continue its comeback to where it was before the recession. "2011, it won't be all the way back, but it's certainly moving in the right direction."
But Salvino says steadily higher gasoline prices will cause people to make adjustments in their spending, which will have a negative impact on tourism. "Three dollars would have been manageable for a lot of people, but now we're looking at 3.75, 4 dollars possibly by spring, that's a big hit on the typical person."
Home values are still way down from their peak and Salvino says, with so much of a typical family's wealth tied up in their home, a sagging real estate market trickles over into the rest of the economy. "So the level of spending that we saw in 2004, 5, 6 is not likely to return any time soon, because that was a lot of debt-driven spending."
But Salvino says there is a lot of development going on in the area, at Broadway at the Beach and the boardwalk. "And those are signs that investors see opportunity and also that they are doing well enough to make those developments."
In terms of local unemployment, Salvino sees it dropping about a percentage point by the end of the year, from 10.5 down to 9.5 percent, but it would be difficult for it to drop much further than that.
