Bellingham Commercial Real Estate
How can there be lower wages and rising real estate prices at the same time. Appreciating Whatcom County Commercial real estate and lower wages was one of the discussion topics at a Western Washington University workshop.
Local Economy Goes Under Microscope
DAVE GALLAGHER
Whenever I see Whatcom County’s low wages and our rising housing prices, it leaves me scratching my head. How are people able to buy homes around here?
It’s one of those strange phenomena taking place in today’s local economy, and a topic that federal, state and local economists will be tackling in what should be an interesting workshop.
Western Washington University will host a workshop called “Calibrating the Northwest Economy: Analyzing Local Economies through data,” on Friday at the Skagit Valley Casino.
The all-day event will include a bunch of economists crunching the data and taking feedback from participants about what it all means.
"We want to invite discussion about a variety of local economic issues and offer what is showing up in the hard numbers,” said Hart Hodges, director for Western Washington University’s Center for Economic and Business Research.
"Business and public officials are making decisions every day based on what is happening in the economy, and we hope to provide some tools to find the statistics to help them.”
The workshop comes on the heels of the release of local data from the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis.
One of the reports is about Whatcom County’s wages, compared to the U.S average.
In the early 1970s, Whatcom County’s wages were about equal to the national average. Since that time they have steadily gone down. By 2000, Whatcom County’s wages were just 75 percent of the national average, but rebounded to 80 percent by 2004.
With local wages below the national average and housing prices appreciating well above the national average in the past five years. It appears other economic factors are at work.
"One possible explanation is that there has been an influx of wealth coming into this area, whether it is through inheritance or other means,” Hodges said.
"It could be an interesting trend that ought to be discussed. If there is an influx of wealth coming into the area, it might be worth rethinking the importance wages have on the economy.” |