Some economic indicators to share with you all…
So far FY 2018, Arizona ranks –
5th among the states for personal income gains,
6th for gross state product or output and
7th for job creation.
Worth to note, Arizona ranked in 2017
6th for population growth and
5th for domestic in-migration.
Arizona’s jobless rate, now at 4.7 percent, could ease to 3.9 percent by the end of 2019.
Despite the improvements mentioned above, Arizona still has catching up to do in some respects. For example, the state’s per capita personal income of $42,280 in 2017 ranked 43rd among the states and Washington, D.C. Yet this is also the momentum helping Arizona moving ahead in many other economic indicators.
Job growth has accelerated in recent months, with Arizona likely to add about 72,000 net jobs in 2018, up from 63,900 last year, and 71,000 in 2019.
Arizona’s population, now at 7 million, is expected to grow 1.6 percent in 2018 and 1.5 percent 2019, adding a bit more than 100,000 residents both years, as also happened in 2017.
People want to move to Arizona, they want to move to Phoenix, and they need housing.
As a caveat, housing prices in the Phoenix metro area have risen more than twice as fast as wages, pointing to a widening affordability gap that is starting to slow home sales and construction, along with higher interest rates.
However, the risks of a construction-fueled bust appear lower than in 2006, near the end of the last economic boom. Construction employment accounted for 9 percent of all Arizona jobs back then; it’s 5.7 percent today.
Higher home prices also are causing more people to rent, and apartment demand is high in parts of the Valley.
