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There’s good economic news for the beginning of 2012. The shopping season ended with a bang. Retailers expect a four percent increase in holiday sales when statistics are released later this month. Home sales are up 11 percent from a year ago and unemployment is down. As Whitney Ray tells us, the good news isn’t enough to stop deep budget cuts when the legislative session begins next week, but it could ease the pain.

Shelby Meaders, a sales associate at My Kids a La Mode, is restocking the shelves after a better than expected holiday shopping season.

The kids clothing and toy store was slammed last month with people buying children’s’ gifts.

“There have been a couple of incidences where there have been six or seven people in line waiting to check out and we would kind of do a team work situation. We would run in the back and get a pair of shoes for somebody and then run back out here and check them out,” said Meaders.

The story’s the same throughout much of the state. The Florida Retail Federation estimates sales rose four percent. Final holiday shopping statistics will be released later this month.

“There’s a lot more consumer confidence in the state of Florida and all across the nation and when the consumer is confident they spend more money,” said Rick McAllister, President of the Florida Retail Federation.

Home sales rose a whopping 11 percent over the past year. An even more promising sign, prices stabilized. The median sales price for a home in Florida is 130-thousand.

“I think for 2012 what we are going to see is increased sales continuing for every month,” said John Sebree, The VP of Public Policy at Florida Realtors.

Since January of last year Florida’s unemployment rate has fallen from 12 percent to 10 percent, taking the 2nd largest plunge in the county.

While things are starting to look up in 2012, the focus in Tallahassee will be on more budget cuts. The legislative session begins next week and lawmakers will be greeted by a 1.6 billion dollar budget shortfall. The increase in home sales and retail sales could improve Florida’s budget outlook. A new budget prediction is scheduled to be released in March.