County Economy Ends 1999 Strong
The Ventura County economy closed out the year at a healthy pace last month, with unemployment low and home sales edging up from the month before, capping a year with the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded.
Home sales and prices in 1999 were at their highest since 1988, and the county’s unemployment rate for 1999 was an average 4.8%, the lowest jobless rate since reliable figures were first recorded in 1969.
“It’s amazing to see that low of a rate,” said Mark Schniepp, director of the Center for Regional Economic Research, an organization that is tracking the economies of California’s 58 counties.
Also, the county had the third-highest job growth rate in 1999, behind only Riverside-San Bernardino and Kern County, Schniepp said.
Job growth was up 3.1% from the year before, a bit of a slowdown from the blistering pace set in the first nine months of the year when the rate was hovering around 4%.
The past three months have shown some slowing in job creation, Schniepp said.
“I’ve been saying it all year, and things have definitely slowed down in the last few months,” he said. “But this is purely relative.”
The unemployment rate for December was 4.3%, nearly a full percentage point below last year’s 5.2% and down from November’s 4.8%, according to the report released Friday by the state’s Employment Development Department.
“This again is one of the lowest rates we’ve ever had [for December],” said Dee Johnson, labor market analyst for the Employment Development Department. “We’ve certainly surpassed all previous highs in the number of people employed.”
Retail firms, business services and transportation helped propel local job growth, creating 2,800 jobs last month.
About 384,300 Ventura County residents are employed locally or elsewhere, up from 379,800 last month, according to the state’s figures. Ventura County unemployment ranks 20th among the state’s counties.
The largest growth last year occurred in the nondurable manufacturing category--characterized by companies such as Dole, Procter & Gamble and Sunkist--which posted a 22.9% increase in employment since December 1998. Other areas of strong growth included construction, business services and electronic equipment manufacturing.
In the more volatile month-to-month job rate, the retail trade for December recorded an 11.2% boost from the previous month, attributable in large part to holiday hiring. Otherwise, employment was mostly stable, with small fluctuations in the transportation and electronic manufacturing categories.
Just as the economy continued running smoothly, if a bit slower, through the end of the year, the housing market showed continued signs of good health, according to another report released Friday.
Home sales countywide rose 7.7% last month over December 1998, from 1,276 homes sold then to 1,374 last month. And median home prices rose 6.9%, to $247,000 last month from $231,000 in December 1998.
“This is a continuation of the previous trend,” said John Karevoll, an analyst at Acxiom/DataQuick, which released the report. “Even if interest rates do ratchet up a bit, there’s no indication that these numbers will change. We expect the sales count to edge up a bit, but not by much.”
Ojai reported the highest median price increase, with a 42.4% jump--to $289,000 last month. West Thousand Oaks also posted a big jump, with median prices rising from $248,000 in December 1998 to $312,000 last month. North Oxnard recorded a large leap in homes sold, up 47%, from 83 in December 1998 to 122 last month.
Many areas, however, had a large drop in the number of homes sold. The Westlake area of Thousand Oaks had sales drop by about one-third last month compared with a year earlier, as did east Ventura and parts of Ojai.
But the dip is only a seasonal trend, said Kathy Mehringer, vice president at Fred Sands Brown Realty in Westlake Village.
“I really think that had something to do with Y2K,” she said. “People were worried something would go wrong.”
In the Conejo Valley, December sales were down--to 175 homes, from 238 the year before, according to the Conejo Valley Assn. of Realtors, of which Mehringer is the president.
Overall, the market is expected to stay steady, Mehringer said. And the economy will continue to do well, if just a little cooler, analysts said.
“A slowdown shouldn’t be confused with an unhealthy economy,” Schniepp said of the unemployment rate. “I don’t know whether the slowing is not having jobs or not having the supply to fill them. But it certainly looks like the latter.”
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)
Ventura County House Sales
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Dec. 1998 Dec. 1999 Number Median Number Median City / ZIP Code of sales price of sales price
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CAMARILLO
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93010 93 $265,000 85 $327,000 93012 64 $239,000 54 $261,000
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FILLMORE
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93015 12 $170,000 9 $160,000
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MOORPARK
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93021 61 $246,000 60 $208,000
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OAK PARK
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91377 31 $255,000 32 $295,000
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OAK VIEW
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93022 10 $179,000 8 $188,000
*--*
OJAI
*--*
93023 36 $203,000 24 $289,000
*--*
OXNARD
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93030 83 $190,000 122 $194,000 93033 56 $139,000 59 $156,000 93035 56 $196,000 33 $204,000
*--*
PORT HUENEME
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93041 31 $132,000 42 $150,000
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SANTA PAULA
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93060 22 $160,000 24 $166,000
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SIMI VALLEY
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93063 114 $233,000 129 $249,000 93065 185 $262,000 208 $225,000
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THOUSAND OAKS
*--*
91320 86 $290,000 100 $374,000 91360 75 $267,000 85 $290,000 91361 33 $332,000 22 $351,000 91362 73 $248,000 98 $312,000
*--*
VENTURA
*--*
93001 45 $184,000 35 $166,000 93003 78 $196,000 95 $228,000 93004 33 $203,000 22 $225,000 COUNTYWIDE * 1,276 $231,000 1,374 $247,000
*--*
Source: Acxiom / DataQuick Information Systems
