County Economic Profiles - getting economic information about your county

All real estate is local and every market is unique. To help REALTORS® and other housing market analysts understand local market conditions and economic indicators, CAR Research and Economics produces a series of County Economic Profiles (CEPs) which provide insights into the local economy and direction of the individual counties’ housing markets. The Profiles are updated on a monthly basis and the most current data was released today.

The most recent data for California employment shows how varied the recovery has been for different local employment markets. While California’s job market has generally performed ahead of most of the other states, some regions of California are faring well ahead of others. Figure 1 illustrates month to month changes in non-farm job growth. California lost 1.3 million jobs in the recession and gained about 40 percent of them back since January 2010. However, while a large number of jobs lost during the recession were jobs in construction and financial services, many of those jobs are not coming back in the near future. The sectors that have been growing though, particularly in the Bay area, are in Professional & Business Services and mostly related to Computer Systems Design & Related Services. These new jobs are resulting from growing technology industries related to mobile technology solutions and wireless devices. Figure 2 summarizes changes in the number of employees by major industries. Between July of last year and this year, over 115,000 jobs were created in Professional & Business Services, while half as many were added in Educational & Health Services and Leisure & Hospitality.

These numbers highlight an important shift in the job market today. On one hand, we are still suffering from high unemployment following the recent recession. The employment trend that follows business cycles is called cyclical trend and much of the remaining unemployment is still attributable to lagging business cycle. On the other hand, we are also experiencing a shift in the types of new jobs being generated and the fact that the labor force may not be prepared to take on the new jobs. Such trend is referred to as structural shift in employment. Structural unemployment may persist even when the economy has been expanding for years. California is currently experiencing cyclical and structural unemployment. Thus, when looking at how unemployment rates are faring, one must keep in mind that both trends are at force and that some of the traditional remedies to curb unemployment are less effective.

To see County Economic Data for you county click Here.


Each profile also encompasses a number of other data which affect local housing markets, including:

• Sales and prices on existing homes
• Housing  inventory
• Time on the  Market
• Mortgage rates
• The health of the local job market
• Foreclosure statistics
• Taxable sales
• Construction activities
• New Homes sales statistics
• Rental statistics
• Population and Demographic changes
• Migration patterns
• Homeownership rates


Figure 1  

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Figure 2

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C.A.R. Research and Economics uses a variety of data sources in preparing the County Economic Profiles, including over 90 local associations of REALTORS®/MLSs, US Census Bureau, Employment Development Department, the California Department of Finance, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, Construction Industry Research Board, the State Board of Equalization, Foreclosure Radar, Real Facts, and DataQuick. CEPs are updated monthly and are available for the following counties: Alameda, San Diego, Contra Costa, San Francisco, Fresno, San Joaquin, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Mateo, Marin, Santa Barbara, Merced, Santa Clara, Monterey, Santa Cruz, Orange, Sonoma, Riverside, Stanislaus, Sacramento, Ventura, San Bernardino, and the state of California.

For more information on how to subscribe to the CEPs, please visit www.rebsonline.com or call
(213) 739-8278.

All C.A.R. members get a 50% discount.