Items tagged with 'economy'
Capital Region median home prices 2011
The median sale price of single family homes in the Capital Region was basically flat in 2011 compared to 2010, according to numbers from the Greater Capital Association of Realtors.
The median price for sale price for a home in the greater Capital Region was $186,032 in 2011. It was $203,511 in the Capital Region's four core counties. Both of those medians were down about 1 percent from 2010.
GCAR (as it's known) recently posted its annual market report for 2011. It includes stats for individual counties, cities, and towns in the Capital Region -- we've broken those out into a table after the jump.
While prices were basically flat for the region as a whole, the average time it took to sell a house increased. GCAR says the average number of days on the market until sale was 101 days in 2011, up from 92 in 2012. (For some perspective, the average was 79 days in 2007. It's been rising each year since.)
Onto the table...
Ecovative in Wired
There's a profile of Green Island startup Ecovative in the February issue of Wired -- the article is now online via Wired UK (which explains the Britishisms in the linked story above).
You've read some of it before, but there are some interesting new (to us) bits that touch on how good ideas come about, and what it takes to foster them. Also: Eben Bayer and Gavin McIntyre may be the first Wired profile subjects who grew their own headline.
We've posted a bunch about Ecovative, in part because it's an interesting local story with a fun angle (Packaging! Made from mushroom roots! By two good-looking nerdy guys!). But the company also has big potential. The polystyrene packaging business is a $20 billion a year industry (according to the Wired article) -- and Ecovative is looking to disrupt it with a product it says costs the same and doesn't harm the environment. That's an enormous opportunity. And it's growing from the ground up here.
Sure, it's not a multi-billion dollar chip fab or sprawling nanotech campus. But maybe it could be, someday. Upstate New York benefited greatly over the last century thanks to companies that created new industries -- names such as Kodak, Xerox and GE (many of which are now faded). If this part of the country ever finds that sort of prosperity again, it most likely will involve people and companies that have disruptive, industry-creating or shifting ideas.
Is it likely that Ecovative ever becomes as big as Kodak (once was) or GE? The odds are extraordinarily long. But all those companies started somewhere. Why not a warehouse in Green Island?
thumbnail: Chris Crisman / Wired
A neighborhood where (economically) everyone's just about the same
Almost none of these things are not like the others.
The Country Knolls neighborhood in Clifton Park has the smallest income inequality of any place in the nation, according to the Census Bureau (with a handful of statistical caveats). That is, there's very little distance between the high and low ends of the income distribution there (Gini index of 0.214). Or, to put it simply, almost everyone there has just about the same level of household income.
Notes the Census Bureau in the report, U.S. Neighborhood Income Inequality in the 2005-2009 Period:
Country Knolls CDP NY, part of the Albany Urbanized Area about halfway between Albany and Saratoga Springs NY (see Map 2), has the lowest measured income inequality (though not different from the others in the table because of the small sample sizes)--0.214, or 46 percent of the U.S. figure.21 In these small places with low inequality, sorting is likely the source of the homogeneity in income. For example, in Country Knolls in 2005-2009, 96 percent of the people were White non-Hispanic; 85 percent of households are married-couple households; 97 percent of the people at least 1 year old were living in the same residence 1 year earlier; 26 percent of people 25 years and over had a graduate or professional degree; the median income of households was $107,589; and only 9 of 609 housing units were renter-occupied (1.5 percent).
That median income would put a household somewhere close to the 80th percentile for income in the Capital Region.
A tip of the hat to the TU's Chris Churchill for noticing this. And The Biz Review talked about it with Clifton Park supervisor Phil Barrett, who lives in that neighborhood.
[via @MickIAm]
Earlier on AOA: Capital Region income distribution
map: US Census Bureau
Capital Region income distribution
With all the talk about 99 percents and 1 percents, we were curious about the income distribution in the Capital Region.
So, we looked up the data. Let's go to the charts, graphs, and discussion...
(You know you want to see where you rank.)
Friendly's files for bankruptcy, 6 Capital Region locations closing
The Friendly's in Guilderland. Apparently those clouds were a portent.
Friendly's announced today that it's filed for bankruptcy (Chapter 11, the re-organization kind) -- and closing 63 "underperforming" locations, including six here in the Capital Region. [Friendly's press release]
The list of Capital Region closures is after the jump, as are the locations remaining. (It would appear this area was over Friendly'ed.)
Friendly's started in Springfield, Massachusetts in 1935. [Boston Globe]
Earlier on AOA: With bankruptcy on the horizon, Daniel ate the Buffalo chicken sliders at Friendly's
Bill Clinton's speech at the Empire State Plaza
After the announcement of the $4.4 billion big thing about small things, Bill Clinton spoke at the New York Open for Business conference Tuesday at the ESP. The video is embedded above. Clinton's speech starts at the 50:00 mark (you can just jump to that point).
At the beginning of the speech, Clinton gives a shoutout to Jerry Jennings and remembers... jogging in Albany.
$4.4 billion for chip fab research in the state, and more jobs at Albany NanoTech
The construction at the Albany NanoTech expansion today.
Andrew Cuomo announced today that a consortium of tech companies will be investing $4.4 billion in chip fab research facilities around the state. The Cuomo admin says the research effort will create and/or retain 6,900 jobs -- 800 of them at UAlbany's College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) complex.
You'll recognize many of the names of the corporations involved: Intel, IBM, GLOBALFOUNDRIES, TSMC and Samsung. Said Cuomo this morning at the NY Open for Business conference at the ESP: "These companies could have gone anywhere on the globe ... they're investing right here in New York."
In addition to Albany NanoTech, there will also be investment at IBM in Fishkill, SUNYIT in Utica, and CNSE's facility in Canandaigua.
The state is putting $400 million toward this effort, which the Cuomo admin says will go directly to CNSE at UAlbany -- and all the tools and equipment will belong to the college.
The research will focus on making computer chips from 450 mm wafers. Current technology uses 300 mm wafers, and the larger size offers the potential of cheaper, faster chips. As an Intel exec told the audience today: "[450 mm] allows us to continue Moore's Law in an economic way."
That CSNE building going up at Washington and Fuller in Albany will house the facilities for this effort, and be called NanoFab West or NanoFab X. UAlbany has been coy about the purpose of that building, maybe because it was sitting on this announcement. It's also expected the expansion will house green energy research, including that $400something million solar panel research consortium. [TU CapCon] [TU Places and Spaces] [TU] [CSNE]
It's probably fair to say Cuomo was stoked this morning. As he crowed at one point during his remarks: "We won a very important competition globally. ... Why? Because we are New York. That's why we won it."
Albany metro an "economically vibrant college town"
The Albany metro area ranks 15th in a list of the "most economically vibrant college towns" from The Atlantic and Richard Florida.
They applied the term "college town" somewhat loosely:
Our measure is not limited to smaller, more traditional college towns, but also includes larger metros like Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and New York, which are home to major college campuses and large numbers of students and faculty. We measure economic vibrancy in terms of six key variables: per capita income, high-tech industry concentration, the rate of innovation (measured as patents per capita), human capital (the percentage of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher), percent of the workforce in the creative class, and the affordability of housing.
Boulder was #1 on the list. (Tangent: Should we start nurturing Boulder envy? Is Boulder the new Portland? The new Austin?)
(Thanks, Jess!)
Capital Region unemployment down a bit
The last five Augusts. (see note below)
The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 6.7 percent in August, according to data out Tuesday from the state Department of Labor. That's down from 7.2 percent in August 2010, and 7 percent his past July. (August 2010 is the best comparison because the data is not seasonally adjusted.)
Even with the decline in unemployment rate, the Capital Region still had fewer people employed this past August compared to a year ago -- about 4,000 fewer people. There were just under 30,000 people unemployed in the Capital Region last month.
The chart above tracks the Capital Region's unemployment rate by month over the last five years, with each August marked.*
The state's unemployment rate was 7.7 percent, down from 8.3 percent in August 2010. The national unemployment rate was 9.1 percent.
Breakouts for local counties after the jump. Saratoga County had one of the lowest rates in the state.
New Yorkers: yeah, we've been better
From a Siena poll out this week about New Yorkers and the economy:
+ 42 percent of respondents said they were worse off financially now than they were last year. 16 percent said they were better off.
+ 50 percent said this statement matched their thinking about the economy: "Unfortunately, I think our country's best economic days are behind us. I'm afraid the next generation will have to accept a lower standard of living."
+ But 59 percent of people said they think the economy will be better in 10 years. (19 percent said it would be worse.)
More on jobs, expenses, and the "problem" with government...
The confidence is crumbling
A chart of consumer confidence since 1999. The red line is New York State, the blue line is the nation.
Were you as spooked by the debt ceiling debacle as everyone else seems to have been? A new Consumer Confidence poll released today by the Siena Research Institute shows that people are feeling pretty down about the current state of the economy and even more bleak about the future. Siena polled the state as a whole and also separated out the numbers for upstate as compared to New York City. Across the state, consumer confidence has fallen by 1.9 percent. In the upstate area, it's fallen by 3.1 percent. And that's just the overall number. When confidence in the economic future is measured, the numbers get even worse, with upstate confidence falling by a whopping 8 percent.
This chart on Siena Institute's main page shows how precipitously consumer confidence has fallen in the country and state since 1999.
What are your thoughts on the current economy? Are you, your family and friends better off financially than you were a year ago? What do you expect your financial situation will be a year from now?
graph: Siena Research Institute
The Albany metro bounces. Theoretically.
The Northeast and Midwest: resilient.
The Albany metropolitan area ranks among the most "resilient" metros in the nation, according to rankings out this week from researchers at the University at Buffalo. The Albany metro ranked 48th out of 361 metros nationwide -- that's among the top 20 percent.
OK, so if you throw the Capital Region against a wall, it springs back? Sort of. Maybe.
SUNY's economic impact on the Capital District
Impact of a walk-through fountain: priceless.
The SUNY system has a $1.3 billion annual economic impact on the Capital District, according to an analysis done by Rockefeller Institute at UAlbany and the University at Buffalo Regional Institute. It figures the SUNY system has a $19.8 billion impact on the state as a whole.
Here's a handful of facts, figures and bits for the Capital District that we pulled out of the report, in a few cases matched up with outside data...
Capital Region unemployment rate drops
The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 7.2 percent last month, according to numbers out today from the state Department of Labor. That's down from 7.7 percent a year ago and 7.8 percent last month.
New York State's unemployment rate was 8 percent last month. That's down from 9.1 percent a year ago, and 8.7 last month. The national rate was 9.2 percent, down from 10.2 percent a year ago, and 9.5 percent last month.
Compared to the rest of the state, the Capital Region is doing relatively well. The Capital Region's rate was lower than all over metro areas in the state aside from Ithaca (5.4 percent) and the suburban counties around NYC (6.9 percent).
Zooming in a little more, individual Capital Region counties are doing even better compared to the rest of the state. Albany County's 6.8 percent rate was tied for sixth lowest in the state (with New York county). And Saratoga was right behind it at 6.9 percent. In fact, all four core counties of the Capital Region rank in the top 20 for lowest rates statewide. (The metro area's rate would be lower if not for Schoharie County, which the DOL includes in this metro, at 10.6).
There are still about 30,000 people in the Capital Region who are unemployed.
Numbers not seasonally adjusted, so the best comparison is to the same month a year ago.
Everyone's taking a hit on gas prices -- sometimes even the gas stations
A pump at the Stewart's at New Scotland and Whitehall in Albany on Tuesday.
Gary Dake, the president of Stewart's Shops, dropped a tweet last week that made us stop for a second:
Yesterday we sold 550,000 gallons of gas at an average margin of a 2 cent loss per gallon.
Yep, a regional chain -- with 271 gas station locations -- was selling gasoline last week at times for less money than it cost to buy and deliver it.
Curious about how that could happen, we called up Stewart's spokesman Tom Mailey for some background.
Job market takes a step back
The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 7 percent in November, according to the state Department of Labor. That's up from 6.7 percent in November 2009. The region is down about 3,000 jobs compared to a year ago.
There were more than 31,000 unemployed people in the Capital Region in November.
New York State's unemployment rate was 8.3 percent in November -- up from 8.2 percent in October and down from 8.9 percent in November 2009. The total job count in the state was down 300 last month.
The national unemployment rate was 9.8 percent last month -- up from 9.6 in October and 10 in November 2009.
Anecdotal, but... We feel like we got a small view into the job market via the hiring process for the associate editor job with AOA. It's been sobering.
We got a lot of applications. And a lot of those people have skills and experience. There just aren't that many opportunities out there right now.
All data from NYS DOL. Capital Region data are not seasonally adjusted, so it's best to compare the same month from different years. State level data is adjusted, so if you'd like to compare one month to the next, go for it.
Adding jobs one place, losing them another
New York State added more than 40,000 private sector jobs last month -- the biggest such increase since 2005, according to the state Department of Labor. Good news!
Here's the thing, though: the state lost 37,000 public sector jobs compared to the same month a year ago. The large majority of those jobs were at the local level. And with stimulus money drying up, you have to figure governments will keep cutting.
The Capital Region added 2,800 private sector jobs in October, compared to October 2009. But public sector losses put the overall change at -1,900. There are still roughly 30,000 unemployed people in this area.
Prices from a market where they're not advertised
We're always curious about everyday patterns or odd markets that aren't necessarily easy to get a handle on. So we had to exclaim, "Dude!" when we recently came across a new site called Price of Weed.
Yep. It's exactly what it sounds like. The site touts itself as "a global price index for marijuana." It relies on user submitted prices to compile a price index, broken down by state and quality. For example, here's the index for New York State. Here's an article about the anonymous creators.
The site includes reports by town. So, naturally, for journalistic purposes, we were immediately curious about prices in the Capital Region and how they compared to other parts of the state.
So we rolled the numbers.
Albany lures more money and nerds from Austin
David Paterson and bunch of other top state officials were at Albany NanoTech today to announce that Sematech -- the semiconductor research consortium -- is moving another one of its arms from Austin to Albany. (This had been simmering for a while.) The move will reportedly bring 100 jobs and $100 million in investment ($20 million of that public). [Paterson admin] [TU]
When the transition is complete, Sematech will have moved all of its operations from Austin to Albany. Put that in your breakfast taco.
While the jobs and the investment would be nice on their own, the hope is that this sort of project will spur related development here. For (a big) example, GlobalFoundries was attracted to this area by the semiconductor research center at UAlbany. And then that related development attracts its own related development and so on and so on and eventually there's a cluster. And then Austin will start looking to us for inspiration. (OK, maybe not that last part. Yet.)
All together, there's now been more than $6.5 billion worth of investment at Albany NanoTech.
photo via Albany NanoTech
Capital Region unemployment rate stuck
The dots mark the last five Augusts.
The Capital Region's unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in August, according to the state Department of Labor. It was 6.9 percent in July and 6.8 percent in August 2009. (August to August is the best comparison because the local unemployment rate is not seasonally adjusted.)
There are more than 31,000 people unemployed in the Capital Region.
New York State's overall unemployment rate in August was 8.2. It was 8.4 in July and 8.6 in August 2009 (seasonally adjusted, so if you'd like to compare different months against each other, compare away).
The situation isn't good here, but it's better than the nation as a whole. The national unemployment rate in August was 9.5 percent -- about the same as a year ago.
Breakouts for individual Capital Region counties after the jump.
Related: The US Census Bureau released numbers of on the poverty rate today. It estimates New York State's rate in 2009 at almost 16 percent. That national poverty rate was 14.3 percent -- the highest since 1994.
Consumer "non-confidence"
The higher the number, the more confident.
Check out this table from the Siena Research Institute's monthly New York State consumer confidence index.
Look at the split between Democrats and Republicans for confidence about the future of the economy. There's also a relatively wide split between upstate and NYC.
From SRI director Doug Lonnstrom:
Statewide our numbers are weak and depict worried consumers very reluctant to spend. Under the hood, we see Democrats saying the economic glass is nearly half full, but Republicans, 25 future index points lower, are now more pessimistic about their own prospects as well as the five-year state outlook than they have been since we began measuring consumer confidence in 1999. Over six of every ten Republicans expect poor business conditions in New York this year and widespread unemployment through 2015. Democrats forecast a somewhat rosier picture for the state and are much more likely than Republicans to insist that somehow, someway, they personally will be better off in a year.
As NYT reported earlier this week, New York City has fared relatively well during the recession (relative being the key word) -- and things are looking up there. That might explain some of the split -- both political and geographic.
Earlier on AOA: Optimism for the Capital Region housing market
table: Siena Research Institute
The Albany metro area is "brainy"
And as we all know, smart is sexy.
The Albany metro area is #13 on a list of the "20 Brainiest Cities in America" compiled by Richard "Creative Class" Florida (and another researcher) for the Daily Beast.
From the accompanying article:
Brainy metros tend to have higher incomes, wages, and economic output, higher levels of innovation (measured as patents), more high-tech industry, and higher housing prices, according to an analysis by my research team at the Martin Prosperity Institute. They have also been among the most resilient during the current economic downturn.
And the methodology:
The Brainiest Metros Index is based on three variables: (1) the share of adults 25 years of age and older with a Ph.D., master's or professional degree (from the U.S. Census American Community Survey), (2) computer scientists and mathematicians as a share of all employment, and (3) scientists (physical, biological, social) as a share of total metro employment (both from Bureau of Labor Statistics). The index weights all three variables equally and covers 362 U.S. metro regions.
Boulder, Colorado was #1.
(Thanks, Carl!)
Earlier on AOA:
+ Albany: not dead, yet
+ Listomania
The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center
Scott Kellogg and his daughter on the site of the future Radix Center.
Scott Kellogg wants to teach you to live greener and be more self-sustaining -- you know, grow your own food, raise a little livestock.
Hey, city dwellers -- this means you.
Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew are the founders of the Rhizome Collective, a center for community organizing and urban sustainability in Austin Texas, and the authors of The Toolbox for Sustainable City Living.
Now they live in Albany, and they're building a space called The Radix Center to teach city dwellers and suburbanites alike to do everything from compost with worms and grow porch mushrooms, to collect rainwater and raise their own fish.
Scott says not only is this possible, you're actually going to enjoy it.
Not dead yet
Going on more than three centuries.
This whole "Albany is a dead city" thing just seems silly to us. Albany isn't dead. Unless this is some sort of Sixth Sense situation. Or maybe we're all zombies -- and Albany is actually an undead city. (What's for lunch? Braiiinnns...)
But, whatever... let's kick this around a little bit.
The local housing market is... something
Median sale prices. Just a reminder: it's one month of data, so take it with a grain of salt.
The number of closed home sales was down 38 percent in July compared the same period last year, according to Greater Capital Association of Realtors.* But get this: the median sale price was up five percent -- to $199,000 (year to date prices are up slightly, too).
The steep drop in the number of sales probably is a result of the federal tax credit that ended earlier this year -- a lot of house buying was probably crammed in before the deadline.
There are still a lot of houses out there, though. GCAR reports the market has 12.5 "months supply of inventory." And the number of days on the market for the average house is 86 -- that's up about five percent over last year.
By the way: If you already own a house -- and think you'll be there for at least a few years -- it might be a good idea to look a refinancing. Rates are extraordinarily low right (you can get a 15 year mortgage for around 4 percent). Refinancing could save you a lot of money in the long run (even with New York's high closing costs).
... said Jenna about The quintessential Capital Region food?