December 2017 Oregon Regional Economic Indicators

Good morning.  Attached is the University of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes for December 2017.  The release date is today, March 13, 2018. We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.

Oregon Regional Economic Indicators:

Full report available here…

Oregon’s major metropolitan areas finished 2017 on a strong note. Highlights of this month’s report include:

• For all regions covered by this report, both raw and moving average measures (which smooth monthly volatility) remain above zero, indicating an above trend pace of activity.
• The Portland metro area measure bounced on the back of strong contributions from housing and labor market components.
• The Eugene-Springfield measure continues to move generally sideways at a level largely consistent with a pace last experienced in late 2005; low levels of housing permits continue to weigh on the index.
• The Central Oregon area remains buoyant with a low unemployment rate and solid housing activity.
• Very low unemployment rates made large positive contributions to the Rogue Valley and Salem measures. Home permitting remains weak in both areas, particularly the Rogue Valley.

Additional Note: The Bend lodging tax data for December has yet to be released. To prevent further delay in releasing this report, the Central Oregon measures uses a forecasted value of the lodging revenue. Consequently, the Central Oregon measure will be revised when the lodging tax data again becomes available.

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