January 2019 Press Release

Tallahassee Economy Tries to Warm Up in January

New Construction, Building Materials, Consumer, and Business Spending Fuel Acceleration

Tallahassee, FL – The Tallahassee Economic Index (TEI), the city’s top economic growth indicator, today released numbers ending January 2019. Following a .65 point decline in December, the Index jumped 6.40 points from 35.56 to 41.96 in January.

“The Index popped 6.40 points to start the New Year. New Construction Permits recovered from a multi-year low and Lumber and Other Building Materials Sales hit an all-time high in January.” said TEI Founder Brett F. Ewing. “Existing Real Estate was somewhat of a drag as Realtor Sales were down double digits on both a year over year and month over month basis.”

“January saw the biggest move in the index since July 2017, and this time it was a positive move. The upward swing was fueled by Consumer and Business Spending growing in concert. Airport Traffic was also a highlight, continuing its streak of double digit seasonally adjusted growth.” Said Lance Mitchell, Director of Research at the TEI. “One of the few blemishes on this month’s report was Initial Claims for Reemployment Assistance. This input has been a rock star as of late, but in January it spiked over 30% higher than last month. Still overall it was a great start to the year.”

• New Construction Permits recovered 230% from the December, but crumbled 52.86 percent compared to one year ago
• Initial Claims for Reemployment Assistance increased 32.60 percent MoM, and fell .28 percent YoY
• Realtor Sales dropped by 31.72 percent from December, and 13.4 percent from January of last year
• Lumber and other Building Materials Sales grew 32.23 percent MoM, and 9.99 percent YoY
• Airport Traffic dropped 8.39 percent from last month, but continued its ascent growing 10.91 percent from one year ago