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Waiting For Recovery: Idaho's Economy In 4 Charts

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Background

This page is no longer being updated. For ongoing coverage of this topic, go to Boise State Public Radio’s website.

Much like the nation, Idaho’s post-recession recovery has been slow and bumpy.

In areas like the housing market, Idaho has shown repeated positive signs since StateImpact started keeping track in 2011.  Idaho’s hardest-hit sector, construction, is also making a steady, albeit slow, comeback.

As this chart shows, Idaho’s unemployment rate is also continuing its trend downward.

However, Idaho still isn’t seeing a positive change in three areas.

Median income hasn’t rebounded…

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Idaho’s poverty rate continues to increase…

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

And more people are using food stamps than ever before…

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Latest Posts

March 29, 2012

Boise’s Rebound, By The Numbers

Boise is among the U.S. cities showing the strongest signs of economic recovery, as we reported yesterday. But that assessment comes with a big qualification: in the short-term, the Boise economy looks strong.  Its gross metropolitan product — that is, the market value of goods and services produced in the city — grew at a […]

March 28, 2012

Report: Boise’s Recovery Among Strongest In Nation

Boise’s economy got a vote of confidence today, in the form of a report from the Brookings Institution. It puts Boise among the top 20 metro areas in the country, in terms of recession and recovery, considering measures such as job growth and housing market improvement. Brookings researcher Kenan Fikri says growth in the city’s […]

Idaho Posts Above Average Personal Income Growth

Idaho posted above average personal income growth from 2010 to 2011, thanks largely to increases in farm earnings.  Other top industries, in terms of earnings growth, included health care and professional services.  The construction industry had the most notable earnings losses. Idaho’s personal income grew 5.4 percent from 2010 to 2011.  That’s higher than the […]

March 27, 2012

Western Housing Markets Show Signs Of Life

Anyone anxious for a housing market turnaround got a bit of dreary news today, in the form of the most recent Case-Shiller Index report.  It found that home values fell 3.8 percent nationally between January 2011 and January of this year, a greater decrease than expected. In the West, though, there has been a trickle […]

March 21, 2012

Boise Air Travel By The Numbers

For the last week, StateImpact Idaho has been reporting on recent cuts to flights in and out of Boise.  The guiding question: will airlines’ cutbacks affect Idaho’s prospects for an economic turnaround? Airlines are, of course, responding to broader economic conditions when they determine to stop offering a flight between, say, Boise and Los Angeles.  […]

March 20, 2012

Flight Cuts Hit Midsize Cities As They Try For A Turnaround

Boise resident C.K. Haun has this routine down.  He may live in Idaho, but he’s a senior engineer at Apple.  Long before the sun is up, he arrives at the Boise Airport, to catch his regular flight to San Jose.  “I can do this by autopilot now,” he says. “Most of the TSA people know […]

January 19, 2012

Boise Housing Market Ended 2011 with Fewer Homes, Higher Prices

One indicator of an improving housing market is declining inventory, and Idaho appears to be faring well on that score.  According to analysis by Realtor.com, Boise’s number of total listings fell by just over 39 percent from the end of 2010 until the end of 2011.  That’s greater than the national decrease of just over […]

January 16, 2012

Economist Says Idaho Is in a “Low-Skill, Low-Wage Trap”

A new Pew Research Center report on public perception of the growing gap between America’s rich and poor has been widely discussed in the last week.  Retired University of Idaho economist Stephen Cooke focuses on a different kind of wage gap.  Idaho jobs pay considerably less than the U.S. average — nearly $11,000 less in […]

December 23, 2011

Reporter’s Notebook: How to Get Information in a Non-Disclosure State

While reporting our recent story about Idaho farmland prices and investor interest in cropland, I ran across a quirk of Idaho law that posed a bit of a challenge: sales prices aren’t public information.  Idaho is one of ten states that are known, in the real estate business, as “non-disclosure states.”  For a better understanding […]

December 22, 2011

As Farmland Prices Soar, It’s Not Just Farmers Buying

Across the U.S., the price of good quality cropland is soaring, and it’s not just farmers who are driving demand.  In an unsteady economy, investors are looking to farm ground as a safe haven.  Prices have been highest in the Midwest Corn Belt.  Here in Idaho, demand is centered in the Snake River Plain, where […]

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