Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2012

Indicators of economic recovery depicted continued progress in the major metropolitan areas of the Mountain West in the fourth quarter of 2012. The region’s employment recovery gained momentum, and solid home-price increases in the region contributed to the nation‘s broader housing recovery. Such inroads bode well for further advances in 2013. At the same time, the region’s output recovery slowed and unemployment refused to budge

Mountain Monitor - 3rd Quarter 2013

The quarter’s Mountain Monitor marks the four-year anniversary of Brookings Mountain West\u27s quarterly tracking of the uneven pace of recovery across the major metro areas of the Intermountain West and it finds that, although the region continues to outperform the national economy the rate of recovery slowed moderately in the region’s metro areas. As a group, Mountain region metro areas advanced on all four indicators of economic recovery tracked by the Monitor—employment, output, unemployment, and house prices—but their progress was more restrained in the third quarter of 2013 than it was in the second. Beneath the regional headline of moderating growth, however, a number of noteworthy developments from individual metro areas stand out. In sum, the region appeared to remain split at the close of the third quarter between those metro areas where the legacy of the Great Recession is fading steadily, such as Denver, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City, and places such as Albuquerque, Colorado Springs, and Tucson that were still struggling to regain their footing after a brutal once-in-a-generation economic shock

Mountain Monitor-2nd Quarter 2012

Data for the second quarter of 2012 reveal that the large metropolitan areas of the Mountain region were undergoing some of both the strongest and weakest economic recoveries in the nation—even as the pace of recovery across the region as a whole slackened. The result is a new geography. Crash-blasted Boise and Phoenix, along with Utah’s metropolitan areas, are now recovering relatively strongly while Colorado’s metropolitan areas and Albuquerque, Las Vegas, and Tucson struggle

Mountain Monitor-2nd Quarter 2011

Data through the second quarter of 2011 raise new questions about the pace and certainty of recovery in the Intermountain West. Even places like Denver, Colorado Springs, and Ogden—which only suffered mild setbacks in the early quarters of the recession—have stagnated in the wake of the nation’s worst economic slump since the Great Depression. Output and employment increased hesitantly in eight of the 10 major metros of the Intermountain West in the second quarter while the housing market slumped to new lows everywhere

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2010

The metros of the Intermountain West largely fell into two categories by the close of the fourth quarter of 2010 in December: those consolidating their gains from previous quarters on the way to recovery and those still struggling to turn around appreciably and reposition themselves for the next economy. Along those lines, three Intermountain West metros ranked in the top quintile of performers and three in the bottom at year’s end on a measure of overall performance that takes into account changes in employment levels, the unemployment rate, output (gross metropolitan product or GMP), and housing prices since the beginning of the recession for the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas

Mountain Monitor-3rd Quarter 2010

One year after the Mountain Monitor began tracking recession and recovery in the Intermountain West, the Southern Nevada economy has yet to turn around. The rate of slippage across a range of indicators has slowed measurably, but evidence of a nascent recovery eludes. Las Vegas\u27 poor relative performance over the past year can be attributed not only to the legacy of a particularly devastating initial wave of economic distress, but also to a continued struggle to slow and reverse the downward trend

Mountain Monitor - 4th Quarter 2014

With the national economy gaining steam, the 10 major metro areas of the Mountain West ended 2014 with another quarter of strong economic performance. On the four indicators of economic vitality measured by the Mountain Monitor—employment growth, output growth, changes in unemployment, and house price growth—with only a few exceptions, every metro area registered advances on every indicator. Such widespread progress heretofore eluded the region, where recovery from the Great Recession has been characterized by unevenness. In aggregate, the 10 Mountain metro areas ended 2014 with their fastest quarter of job growth of the year. Employment increased by 0.8 percent compared to 0.6 percent nationwide. Individually, every major metro area in the region except Colorado Springs saw employment increase, with six of the 10 creating jobs significantly faster than the country as a whole. The rate of output growth in the region tapered somewhat, however, in line with the national economy. The value of all goods and services produced in the region’s 10 major metro areas increased by only 0.8 percent, compared to 1.3 percent in the third quarter. Only Utah’s three metro areas bucked the trend and saw output growth accelerate

Mountain Monitor - 2nd Quarter 2014

Economic growth returned to the 10 major metro areas of the Mountain West in the second quarter of 2014 after slippage in the first quarter of the year. The resumption of vitality progressed unevenly, however. Denver and Salt Lake City pulled ahead as the fastest-growing metro areas in the region. Ogden and Provo’s days of above-average growth appeared to be fading. Las Vegas’ economic recovery advanced strongly, but Sun Belt peers Phoenix and Tucson had more difficulty moving beyond the first quarter’s slowdown. Albuquerque, for its part, welcomed a return to employment and output growth. Across the region’s 10 major metro areas as a group, employment rose by a modest 0.3 percent compared to 0.5 percent nationwide. Only Salt Lake City and Denver registered faster job growth than the country as a whole, and three metro areas—Colorado Springs, Phoenix, and Tucson—saw employment contract slightly. Output growth, meanwhile, resumed in the region after the surprising nationwide contraction of the first quarter. The region’s average 1.1 percent growth rate beat the national average by 0.3 percent. Colorado Springs was the only metro area in the region and one of the few nationally in which output fell in the second quarter. Phoenix, Salt Lake City, and Tucson, by contrast, saw strongly above-average quarterly growth

Mountain Monitor-4th Quarter 2011

Recovery was firmly underway in the Intermountain West by the fourth quarter of 2011 but its pace varied considerably across the region’s 10 major metropolitan areas. Six of the 10 metros saw job growth in the fourth quarter but only four saw it accelerate over the previous one. Output grew everywhere but only in half of the region’s metros did the pace of growth quicken. The unemployment rate was down across the board from one year earlier. House prices in most markets stabilized. Yet signs of a robust, sustained, and self-fueling recovery remained elusive. National economic indicators from early 2012 may suggest that the economic recovery—though still very slow—is picking up speed, but the economic data for the country’s metropolitan areas now available through the fourth quarter of 2011 paint a somewhat more complicated picture

Mountain Monitor - 2nd Quarter 2013

Economic recovery progressed steadily across the metropolitan Mountain West in the second quarter of 2013. Many of the region’s major metro areas counted among the strongest economic performers nationally, but output growth slowed over the quarter and the region‘s unemployment recovery looked to be stagnating. Moderate job growth and a fast and accelerating housing recovery buoyed the Mountain West economy in the second quarter