RealtyTrac released its 2009 metro-level foreclosure activity report today. There is a definite “good news-bad news” angle to the Kansas City data. First, the bad news: there were more foreclosures in 2009 than there were in 2008. All told, 15,067 homes in the Greater Kansas City area had at least one foreclosure filing in 2009. This is an 11 percent increase from 2008 and a 50 percent increase over 2007. This represents 1.75 percent of housing units in the area, or one out of every 57 homes.
Now for the good news angle: the Kansas City area had fewer foreclosures than a lot of other areas, ranking 79th out of the largest 203 metros in the country in terms the percentage of homes in foreclosure. Our 1.75 percent rate falls well below the national average of 2.21 percent. Among our 9 peer metros, Kansas City ranks 5th on the list behind Salt Lake City (2.91 percent), Denver (2.78), Indianapolis (2.47), and Portland (2.26). Of our peers, Omaha had the lowest rate at .52 percent.
Las Vegas, Nev., was on top of this dubious list, with over 12 percent of its housing units — one out of every eight homes — in foreclosure in 2009. The top of the list was dominated by metros in the southwest and in Florida. In fact, 27 of the 30 metros with the highest foreclosure rates were in California, Nevada, Arizona or Florida.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Metro Unemployment Rate Declines Slightly in November
Kansas City’s unemployment rate declined for the second straight month in November, although the decline was slight — from 8.4 percent to 8.3 percent. This is the lowest the local unemployment rate has been since April.
Looking under the surface we see that the decline occurred primarily because people dropped out of the labor force. The labor force dropped by 2,866, which overshadowed the decline in employment of 1,644. So even though there were fewer jobs, the unemployment rate dropped — because fewer people were participating in the workforce. For more on how the unemployment rates are calculated see our glossary. As we have mentioned before, we would prefer to see declining unemployment rates because employment is rising faster than the labor force.
By way of comparison, the national non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 9.4 percent. (The adjusted unemployment rate was 10 percent. Since metro level seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are not available, we use the non-seasonally adjusted national figure for comparison.) Missouri’s unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in October. Kansas continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 6.2 percent.
Looking under the surface we see that the decline occurred primarily because people dropped out of the labor force. The labor force dropped by 2,866, which overshadowed the decline in employment of 1,644. So even though there were fewer jobs, the unemployment rate dropped — because fewer people were participating in the workforce. For more on how the unemployment rates are calculated see our glossary. As we have mentioned before, we would prefer to see declining unemployment rates because employment is rising faster than the labor force.
By way of comparison, the national non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 9.4 percent. (The adjusted unemployment rate was 10 percent. Since metro level seasonally adjusted unemployment rates are not available, we use the non-seasonally adjusted national figure for comparison.) Missouri’s unemployment rate rose to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in October. Kansas continues to have one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country at 6.2 percent.
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