Whatcom County Commercial Real Estate
A recent federal report suggests that wealth is on the rise in Whatcom County. This could lead to further investment in Bellingham Commercial real estate by individuals and national companies.
Wealth on the Rise
At the end of April the Bureau of Economic Analysis, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce, released data about personal wealth in metro areas. Whatcom County’s per capita personal income was $29,561 in 2005, a 5.1 percent increase from 2004. The national average increase between 2004 and 2005 was 4.2 percent. Personal income is money received from all sources, such as wages, rental income and stocks dividends.
Of the 361 metropolitan statistical areas across the country, Bellingham ranked 198th, having about 86 percent of the national average income. In 1995 Bellingham had a per capita income of $19,771, ranking 214th in the United States. The Bellingham metro area includes all of Whatcom County.
Whatcom also did well when it comes to salaries. Earnings for people employed in the area rose 8.7 percent between 2004 and 2005, while the national average was 5.6 percent.
Per capita income is an important statistic in terms of economic growth. Many company officials look at these income numbers when they are thinking about expanding into a new territory. If a national retailer is moving into the Pacific Northwest, it can look at Bellingham and compare it to the Mount Vernon metro area (which had per capita income of $31,754 in 2005, ranking 143rd in the country) or Seattle (per capita income of $41,608, ranking 17th).
That could be a factor in the “creeping up I-5” phenomenon we sometimes see, where a national company opens a store in Seattle, followed by one in Everett, Mount Vernon and then Bellingham.
Of course, the higher-than average rise in personal income between 2004 and 2005 doesn’t mean we’re all getting richer. It is difficult to tell who actually is gaining new wealth. It could be a small group of rich individuals who saw hefty increases in overall wealth, or it could be middle class folks making nice profits buying and selling real estate.
What will be interesting is whether this trend continues.
In 2005, we were in the midst of a housing boom that arrived a little later than it did in the rest of the country. That market did some cooling in 2006, but overall employment was stronger. In 2005 the unemployment rate ranged between 4.8 percent and 6.0 percent. Last year unemployment hit a record low of 3.8 percent and stayed below 5 percent most of the year, which may have put more pressure on wages.
What was striking to me was the difference in personal income between the west side and the east side of the state. I would have expected cities west of the Cascades to have higher numbers, but it’s a significant difference. Bellingham, which had the lowest income on the west side, ranking 198th, was slightly ahead of Spokane (ranked 209th nationally) and well ahead of Kennewick (240th), Wenatchee (262nd) and Yakima (328th).
So while we’re still low when compared to communities just to the south of us, Whatcom County is catching up to the national average, which could lead to even further investment from the private sector.
Biz Talk runs each Sunday. Reach Dave Gallagher at 715-2269. |