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"A year ago, it would have been ugly," said Fred Eisel, chief investment officer for First Carolina Corporate Credit Unionin Greensboro. "Today, it's a little better. Still not good -- but definitely not ugly."
Eisel was the keynote speaker for the chamber's biannual economic outlook, held on the Technical College of the Lowcountry campus in Beaufort.
Chamber staff has been following Eisel's daily newsletter of banking and finance tips for the past few months, according to president Carlotta Ungaro.
"We thought we'd sure like to bring this guy down who makes even economic indicators sound interesting," Ungaro said.
There are several signs the economy is starting to turn around, Eisel said during his hour-long presentation. Home prices are leveling off nationwide, while prices in South Carolina are holding steady.
One year ago, the median home price in the state was $158,000; today, the median price is down to $156,000.
"We kind of bottomed out in the middle of this year," Eisel said. "In South Carolina, we never really had the big run-up of prices that Florida, Arizona and California had."
The number of homes available across the country is also falling, he said.
"During the bubble, we built a lot of homes because people were buying," Eisel said. "People built spec homes ... people became developers and Realtors. It seemed like easy money. Of course, when the bubble burst, we had all that inventory to get rid of."
Fewer Americans are applying for first-time unemployment benefits than last year and consumer confidence is increasing -- signs of improvement, Eisel said.
But "the problem is employment," he said.
"We lost a ton of jobs in the third and fourth quarter of last year and the first quarter of this year. Things are improving, but we're not nearly close to creating jobs."
For those with a sense of security in their job and the ability to get credit -- both hard things to come by these days, Eisel said -- it's the perfect time to buy a car or house.
Low interest rates, the federal "Cash for Clunkers" program, first-time homebuyer tax credits and other incentives have driven economic growth, he said.
"Once the stimulus is gone away, how much of this growth is going to be (just from) us?" Eisel said.
He borrowed a phrase from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke to describe the economy overall:
"Green shoots," Eisel said. "There's some life in the economy, some green poking up. We are getting there, but in a lot of areas we are still not out of the woods."
