A group called Greenlight Greater Portland, comprised of private-sector leaders dedicated to a sustainable and economic growth has formed to analyze and communicate both the current and future conditions (through 2013) of Portland and issued a report that I think shows promise despite the endless bad news.
Some highlights of the report are:
- Projected population growth for the Portland metropolitan area is 8.0% by 2013; more over, the workforce is projected to grow by 6.9%. The increase alone from Salem North to Vancouver is expected to exceed 2mill. That’s 50,000 more families for the Portland metropolitan area.
- From 2000 – 2008, population grew by 33.8%.
- Six of the most 25 innovative companies in the world are located here (Business Week).
- Disposable personal income is almost $4,000 above the national average (over 10%).
- The 2008 GRP (Gross Regional Product) of $1trill increased by 33% since 2003 - more than 6 times the rate of population growth - and is expected to grow another 27% by 2013. This is highly indicative of economic health.
- Without citing the numerous sources, we’ve been named: Best place to retire, most dog friendly, 5th top fittest city, best biking city, best place to have a baby, raise a family, top rated schools, highest artist’s population, greenest city, high on the list for minority owned companies and free-lance workers, numerous accolades for brewers and wine producers, and 4th hottest spot for hi-tech workers, amongst others.
- We have an unusually diverse economic sector, contributing to our relative economic health, which defies national trends.
- The projected 5-year job growth index puts only LA, Seattle and Austin Texas ahead of us even though we are 26th on the list of large cities.
- We added 88,000 jobs from 2002-2007, which puts the unemployment rate and news of company closings in perspective.
- Projected economical business sectors to watch (each has only 1 or two cities ahead of it): Professional Services, Financial services, Informational services, Construction and Natural Resource Services.
- Unusually desirable place to live: A transportation system studied and copied by municipalities across the world, ocean to the west, skiing to the east.
- Commercial real estate lease and purchase rates are lower than at least 6 other large cities as are residential rents and purchase prices.
Some things to be grateful for are the Urban Growth Boundary, which keeps our real estate desirable and the fact that to date, we’ve always come out of recessions. The economy is cyclical. Something to keep in perspective; during the Great Depression, 50% of households in the nation were delinquent. Currently the rate is about 6.4%; however, during the Depression banks restructured loans to keep from foreclosing, a trend that seems to be slowly increasing currently.
See http://www.greenlightgreaterportland.com for more information.
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