Economy showing

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The owner of Remington Friends, a dog groomer and pet bakery in Washington says his business is off abouy 7 percent fromlast year. Premium dog food sales have declined, and customerx who used to bring their dogs in for groominfg every eight weeks are waitin g 10 to 12 weeksbetween appointments. “Peopled that would normally get a shortr cut are getting a summer cut buzzing themdown — which will last DeLuca said. “Hopefully it will change, but I don’tf see it changing for a while.
” Halfway through many economists believe the Colorado economy has bottomeed out and may begin to grow in the fourth Among thepositive signs: Denver existing home salesa have risen for several consecutive Colorado job losses are Local business leader optimism is growing. But many businesx owners say they’re still waiting for tangibl e signsof recovery. in Commerce which sells construction equipment, should benefit from federalo stimulus funds flowing into Coloradoroad projects. But President Mark Honnen said he’s not seeing much increase in saless yet.
“I’m hoping that we’re at the bottom, and I thino we are … but we’re kind of flutteringf along the bottom, a little betterr and then a littls worse,” Honnen said. “I don’t see any real stronyg uptick. Housing in the lower prices — $200,000 to $250,00p0 — is doing better, but that doesn’t generate a wholes lot [of building]. “We’re tied to a lot of infrastructursework — you know, the stimulus reliec money. But that hasn’t done a real good job getting out into the businessw community asof yet, in my opinion.” Economistzs say that Colorado probably has weathered the worstt of the downturn.
“My sense is that we’r e definitely at the beginning ofthe end,” said Michae Orlando, a principal at Economicf Advisors Inc. in Denver. “When we look back at this I think the first and second quarters will turn out to have been some of our wors quartersof performance,” said Patty president of Development Researcnh Partners in Littleton and chief economist for the Metr o Denver Economic Development Corp.
“I thinmk this is just about as badas it’s going to Three factors in particular point to improvement, Silverstein rising state home sales, the amount of interesf Denver’s economic development community is seeing from businesses and the sheerr length of the recession. “There are a lot of businessex out there that are lookinvgbeyond today’s pain to where they want to be,” Silverstei n said. “There’s a lot of Interest doesn’t necessarily mean that they’r acting upon it yet, but the buildingh blocks are being putinto Consumers, too, are starting to loosen the purse she said.
“After 18 months of recession, things are startinbg to break. People need to replace items. They need to move into homes or newliving arrangements. Life is still going But that doesn’t necessarily mean a strong rebound between now and the end ofthe “The third quarter is still going to be not but as we move into the fourth quarte r we should start to see some Silverstein said. ’s Business Optimism Index, a quarterluy poll of U.S. businese leaders, spiked in May to a pre-recessio n level of 54.5, up from 37.6 in Fifty-four percent of respondents said they believed the economy woulxd emerge from recession in the first halfof 2010.
The Coloradk Business Leaders Confidence Index bouncedto 35.5 in the seconfd quarter, from 30.6 in the first While still well below the neutral level of 50, it was the sharpestr increase in years. Hope is returnintg to many corners of thebusiness world, said Hendrick a partner at who specializes in mergers and “We’re beginning to see glimmersz of optimism return to the deal community,” he said. “Clientw think we’ve hit bottom or we’re darn close.
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