Aug. 24--Home construction in Owensboro is slow this summer.

So far in 2008, we've started construction on 32 fewer houses than at this time last year.

But during the next three to five years, we're likely to have one of the nation's best housing markets.

That's according to the May issue of Shopping Center Business.

The report, based on BlueSmoke's Prospects Index, lists 21 of the nation's 361 housing markets that it expects to become the country's best during the next three to five years.

Owensboro and Bowling Green were the only Kentucky cities on the list.

Columbus was the only Indiana city.

-- Cars continue to outsell trucks in Daviess County this year.

The Daviess County Clerk's office registered 101 new cars in July along with 73 trucks.

The truck sales break down as 34 pickups, 32 sport utility vehicles and seven vans.

-- Kentucky collected 6 percent more from its sales tax in July than it did the same month last year.

So, somebody was shopping.

And apparently, we weren't drowning our sorrows.

The state's beer consumption tax collection was down 10.3 percent.

The distilled spirits consumption tax was down 0.7 percent, and wine consumption tax collections were down 24.4 percent.

-- According to Stores magazine, these are the nation's 10 largest retailers: Wal-Mart, Home Depot, CVS Caremark, Kroger, Costco, Target, Walgreen, Sears, Lowe's and Super-Valu.

-- The American Agriculture Movement says that prices received by farmers have grown by 50 percent since 1990-92.

But the prices farmers pay to others have grown by 80 percent.

-- With the high price of razor blades these days, you'd think the shaving business would be booming.

But AdAge reports that the nation's $3 billion-plus shaving business is slowing down or even shrinking.

Blame it on the general economy, an aging population, more beards and products that last longer, the market-research firm Mintel says.

-- Store closings and cutbacks by retailers made the second quarter the worst for strip-mall owners in 30 years, a report by the real estate research firm Reis said recently.

The Associated Press said strip mall vacancies hit 8.2 percent during the quarter -- the highest level since 1995.

-- Ready for some bad news?

A report by Ernst & Young LLP says that nearly 75 percent of middle-income Kentucky households seven years away from retirement can expect to outlive their money.

-- Bluegrass Soy Sauce Company brags that it is the first micro-brewed soy sauce made in the United States.

The Louisville company says it uses "whole non-GMO soybeans, custom-roasted wheat and limestone-filtered Kentucky spring water."

Keith Lawrence, 691-7301, klawrence@messenger-inquirer.com

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