Given the worldwide economic woes that we are all enduring and their impact on South Coast, we might also be tempted to describe 2011 as our own “annus horribilis.” It has not been an easy year.
What the numbers tell us
Our economic indicators continue to show slow improvement, but it sure doesn’t feel that way.
Unemployment rates for the region dropped over one year from 11.2% to 10.1%, but the number of people with jobs did not grow. This apparent discrepancy is partially attributable to those who got discouraged and stopped looking and therefore are not counted in the unemployment rate.
Both Fall River and New Bedford still have unemployment rates slightly north of 12%.
While we are not Las Vegas or Phoenix, whose entire economies seem to depend upon attracting new residents, residential building permits can be a fairly reliable indicator of economic activity, even for our region. The pace of permits issued in 2011 plodded along very slowly and actually dropped by 18% from 2010. New Bedford led the list, but issued fewer than 100 permits for the year.
Home sales are another yardstick we can use to measure the year, and here the news is mixed. The median sales price of a South Coast home sold in 2011 dropped by 6.9% to $246,954. That is not a positive indicator for our economy but is good news for homebuyers.
Our region’s premier small business lender, SEED Corporation, made about the same number of loans in 2011 as in the previous year. But there is good news here. The average loan amount In 2011 was considerably larger than in 2010. This will translate into more jobs down the road as these loans are put to work to expand businesses and create jobs.
Status of regional projects
We have mixed results when looking at big regional projects for 2011. In the area of creating new jobs, there were wins and losses. The Fall River casino site/biopark quagmire got straightened out in 2011 when the city saw the light and reversed course. They withdrew their sale of prime industrial land to the Wampanoags for a casino and reverted back to the original plan for a biopark in the north end of the city. That is good news for the long term economic health of the region.
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