March 2016 Oregon Regional Indicators

The March 2016 State of Oregon Regional Economic Indexes of was released today. Full report is available here. We thank KeyBank for their generous support of this project.

Oregon’s major metro regions continued to power forward in March. Highlights of the report include:

• The measures for all regions indicate above average growth (both the March numbers and the moving average measures of activity, which smooth monthly volatility). Recall that “zero” for these measures indicates relative average growth; each region has its own underlying growth rate.
• Home construction, measured by new housing permits, contributed positively to both the Portland metro and Central Oregon regions as activity in those areas edges closer to that normally experienced in expansions.