Keeping with a trend seen for most of the year, commercial real estateactivity continued to improve across most of the 12 Federal ReserveBoard districts.

According to the Fed's most recent Summary of Commentary onCurrent Economic Conditions, commonly referred to as the Beige Book, modest gains were reported in Philadelphia,Richmond, Va., Chicago, and Minneapolis.

Released Wednesday, the report collected analysis between Oct.24 and Nov. 14.

Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Dallas, Kansas City,Minneapolis, New York, Philadelphia, Richmond, Va., San Franciscoand St. Louis make up the Fed's 12 districts.

The gains among Cleveland's contacts were tempered by reports inrecent weeks of a slowdown in inquiries and a decline inpublic-sector projects, according to the Fed report. Kansas Citydescribed activity as holding firm and noted that real estatemarkets remained stronger than a year ago.

Demand for office and industrial space continued to increase inDallas, although contacts at some businesses said they were holdingback on expansions due to uncertainty, the Fed said.

Still, other districts noted segments of little change incommercial real estate activity including Boston, which describedmarket fundamentals as flat. San Francisco reported marketconditions as stable but with pockets of strength for largeinfrastructure projects such as roads and bridges.

Meanwhile, while there was some signs of recent softening,Hurricane Sandy appeared to not have impacted office markets acrossupstate New York, the district reported. Commercial and industrialconditions were mixed in the St. Louis district and throughout mostof New York prior to the hurricane.

New York did report that demand for consumer and especiallycommercial and industrial loans weakened, but commercial andresidential mortgage demand was steady.

Some bankers in Richmond encountered a slight improvement inoverall loan demand but added that consumer loans were unchangedfrom meager levels and small business loans were virtually non-existent.

According to St. Louis contacts, overall lending activity wasessentially unchanged over the period. While credit standards forcommercial and industrial loans were largely unchanged, both thedemand for these loans and the number of inquiries ranged frommoderately lower to moderately higher, the district reported.

Used car loan demand was weak in the Dallas district, althoughfirst mortgage and energy-related lending increased, according tothe Beige Book.

San Francisco cited weak-to-moderate business loan demand, butconsumer lending expanded further with the help of auto loans andhome mortgage refinancing.

Most remaining districts, including Philadelphia, Cleveland,Atlanta, and Kansas City reported moderate increases in total loandemand.

The Fed reported improvements in credit standards and creditquality. Chicago, St. Louis and Kansas City noted that creditstandards on most types of loans were unchanged, and Dallas cited aloosening of credit standards, which contributed to verycompetitive loan pricing.

Atlanta cited contacts who reported that underwriting standardshad become more restrictive and burdensome since its last report,both in terms of credit scores and information requests.

With respect to loan quality, New York reported that delinquency rates increased in the consumer and commercial andindustrial segments but held steady in the residential andcommercial mortgage segments.

Philadelphia contacts cited moderate improvement while Clevelandand Richmond noted improvements in delinquency rates acrossconsumer and business loan categories. Richmond added, however,that some contacts were concerned that banks were increasing theirrisk exposure by making longer-term loans in an effort to gethigher yields.