Nov. 30, 2006
2006 Annual Growth Report documents King County's growing economy
King County Executive Ron Sims today issued the 2006 Annual Growth Report, which shows the growing strength of the economy. The report provides details on demographics and development in King County, and serves as an important source of information for government and private-sector decision-makers. It includes updated information on jobs and housing units for each city in the county and features updated profiles for ten potential annexation areas.
The report shows the number of jobs in the county has nearly returned to pre-recession numbers after 70,000 jobs were lost between 2001-2004. Wages and incomes are rising convincingly, after several years of stagnation in which prices rose faster than average income. Unemployment has returned to a low level and most families are better off than during the early part of the decade.
The growth of the economy can be seen on the county's highways, with increasing traffic and higher use of buses and park-&-ride lots. The Seattle Times recently reported that there has been a measurable increase in traffic congestion between 2003 and 2005. The biggest component of the traffic increase has been truck traffic, up more than 60 percent since 1994 with the growth in construction and retail sales and business activity.
Residential growth continued unabated in 2005, showing no sign of decline with the recession. Growth continued to focus in urban areas of King County. Builders in Seattle constructed 28 percent of the county's new housing units in 2005, while the remaining cities permitted more than 53 percent of the new units. Less than four percent of new construction occurred in rural and resource areas, indicating continued success of Growth Management policies. The remaining 15 percent of new construction took place in urban unincorporated communities, many of which are slated for annexation to cities in the next few years.
One of the biggest challenges of the growing strength of the economy is the continuing demand for housing and the upward pressure on housing prices. Strained housing affordability and traffic congestion seem to be the inevitable consequences of the desirability of King County as a place to live and do business.
House prices never dipped during the recession, driven upward by low interest rates. After three years of high vacancies and stable rent prices, apartment rental rates are beginning to rise again. Risk of foreclosure threatens marginal households who stretched to buy a house, as interest rates rise. Almost one third of homeowners, and nearly half of renters, are considered to be "overpaying" in that they spend more than 30 percent of their income for housing.
More on this issue will be coming with the Affordable Housing Benchmark Report to be released in December, which will focus on the housing challenges for households earning less than 50 percent of median income. Meanwhile, the AGR features a map of house sales prices, indicating where more and less expensive houses were sold during 2005.
Increasing diversity of the King County population is revealed by the U.S. Census Bureau's snapshot called the American Community Survey. More than 30 percent of the King County population are now persons of color. Like the U.S. as a whole, King County has a richer tapestry of cultures, driven by increased immigration from Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe. The survey captures this increased diversity in data on race, languages and country of origin.
The AGR is a comprehensive compilation of tables and maps describing the county's growth drawn from an array of federal, state and local sources and presented in a standardized form. King County's 39 cities contribute information, and the resulting report forms a comprehensive picture of those cities and the county's unincorporated communities.
The AGR 2006 is available online, at www.metrokc.gov/budget/agr/agr06/.