Market News

Employment in the Las Vegas area continues to improve, reporting a 3.2% increase compared to first quarter of last year, while the unemployment rate remained essentially the same. As of February, 966,300 people were employed in the Las Vegas market, up by 29,900 from February 2016. Another good sign is that the labor force continues to expand, suggesting that there is more confidence...

Eastern Washington continues to see employment growth, albeit modest in some markets, as well as a decline in unemployment. It is still my expectation that we will continue to see the regional economy improving as we move through the balance of the year.

The markets covered by this report, which include Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange, and Riverside Counties, added 115,900 new jobs between February 2016 and February 2017, and the unemployment rate dropped from 5.2% to 4.6%. This represents fewer new jobs than were seen in our last report, but as we continue to move toward “full employment”, a slowing in employment growth...

Washington State, as well as the markets that make up Western Washington, continues to see unemployment fall and I anticipate that we will see this rate drop further as we move through the year. In all, the economy continues to perform at or above average levels and 2017 will be another growth year