Austin's sales tax revenues plummets..... (Round Rock, Pflugerville: condo, Home Depot, unemployment)

[inthecut]

Austin sales tax revenue down 14.7% in March - Austin Business Journal:

I was told often on these posts that people are continuing to spend in Austin, and that all the relocation influx creates more spending all over Austin.....


SO what IS going on here? Are people really getting more frugal here, like everywhere else? Seems like its the case.........you would never know it with all the "Oh no, people are still out there spending as always, places are packed" comments.......

[HappyTexan]

Pflugerville's actually went up. That's in part to finally having some commercial property there.
Thanks to the new strip centers and big box stores revenue went up. I'm sure the expected more but they should be happy that revenue isn't down.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by HappyTexan

Pflugerville's actually went up. That's in part to finally having some commercial property there.
Thanks to the new strip centers and big box stores revenue went up. I'm sure the expected more but they should be happy that revenue isn't down.

Perhaps people that live in Pflugerville that used to shop in Austin are now shopping in Pf since the new stores open and that may account for some loss in sales tax revenue.

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by Jennibc

Perhaps people that live in Pflugerville that used to shop in Austin are now shopping in Pf since the new stores open and that may account for some loss in sales tax revenue.

No, I don't think so..RR would be closer.
Wallymart and Home Depot are now in Pflugerville and the closest ones before they opened was Round Rock (Wallymart) and Hutto (Home Depot).

Plus Pflugerville isn't that big enough to put that much of a dent in Austin's revenue.

[Trainwreck20]

Heh, Sunset Valley might put a dent in it...the traffic down there is still hell on the weekend. My wife does her best to support the economy down there. If the sales get any better, we will go broke .

[inthecut]

I think we get confused seeing people eating and drinking with people buying the other 90% of the things they purchase....I would imagine that the entertainment/restuarant biz is only 10% at best of total retail tax revenue..the rest of it just isn't as obvious.....sounds about right that Autinites have cut down spending about 14% or so........between the laid off and those worried about their jobs, makes total sense.

I saw the same thing in Ft. Myers, where I have a condo......last winter, stores were busy, yet local unemployment there is over 11%.......the store/restuarant index seems to sometimes not be the best indicator......I think shopping is so focused into a handful of shopping places now that it just seems like those few places are busy.....back when there were far more places to shop it was more obvious...now, when big box and malls eat up all the old local business, and get everyone to shop in one little area, harder to tell, as everyone has to shop in just a handful of places...