Tri-City Area and Real Estate Blog

Once again the Tri-Cities has resisted the downward trend of property values across the nation, and finds itself in contrast with rising property valuations. Franklin County has been the fastest growing county in the state for the last two years and also one of the fastest growing in the nation. Officials in Franklin County expect values to continue to rise at an average of 3-4 percent as they prepare to mail out revaluation notices within the next month. Benton County anticipates remaining at the current level.

Many other communities within our state are facing devaluation at a significant rate which in turn decreases their tax base. For many its been decades since they’ve lost ground in property valuations. According to a recent market survey in the Tri-Cities, the first quarter of 2010 shows that the median residential resale price encompassing the bicounty area is $176,600, thus being an almost 6 percent increase over the entire year of 2008.

Franklin County continues to see it’s main increase in values due to the development of West Pasco and some large farms. Meanwhile, there are some pockets of decrease in the county, mostly around the Connell area because of unspecified market conditions there.

Much of the success of the Tri-Cities’ ability to remain strong, is due to the stimulus money that came into the Hanford cleanup projects, however, many individuals and organizations have worked diligently to diversify our community so that not all economic strength comes from strictly the Hanford area, but instead comes from growth in agricultural, food processing, and tourism dollars. They have been very successful in their endeavors which in turn have created the economic stability that the Tri-Cities and surrounding communities enjoy today.

In spite of the ongoing recession, the Tri-Cities is faring much better that the rest of the state and nation. There was a gain in August of 2,400 nonfarm jobs, which is more than a 2.5 percent growth. Our strengths of food processing, health care, higher education and the Hanford area jobs made for a stable environment in Kennewick, Pasco and Richland.

This isn’t a “boom” period for the Tri-Cities, nor is it a “bust”. The wonderful work that has been done in the way of diversifying this area over the last 20 years, has made a marked improvement in our communities being able to weather the ups and downs of the economy.

A recent issue of Business Week ranked the Tri-Cities as the third best place in the U.S. to make a fresh start for folks who have experienced tough times due to the recession.

The article, entitled “Where Struggling Americans Can Find a Fresh Start” said Tri-Cities has affordable homes and available jobs, due to a strong manufacturing industry, food processing, retail trade and services economy. The article, which based its findings on estimates from an employment services firm called Manpower, said about 24 percent of local companies plan to hire employees this summer.

Anchorage, Alaska was the magazine’s top pick followed by Provo-Orem, Utah. Yakima was ranked fourth.

Source: Journal of Business

Food processing gross sales in Benton County reached $727 million 2007 and were $126 million in Franklin County.

And food processing jobs provided $130 million in wages in Benton and Franklin counties in 2007 – a 20 percent increase in three years.

The those food processing industry has played a significant role in the area’s economy for many years, but those jobs likely have never had more value than now.

Over the past year, Benton and Franklin counties have lost about 1,000 jobs, mostly in construction, said Dean Schau, Washington Employment Security Department regional labor economist.

But the area’s fertile agriculture industry coupled with humans’ basic need for food, makes the industry more recession resistant than others.  “People always have to eat,”  Schau said.

There are more than 200 varieties of fruits, vegetables, grains and berries, grown in Benton and Franklin counties, including appleas, aspargas, barlet, carrots, corns, cherries, grapes, peas, onions, pears, peaches, wheat and potatoes.

And in the past seven years, food processing employment has increased by more than 80 percent, according to state statistics. “One of every 10 food processing workers in the state is here,” said Schau.

The area’s major food processing emploeyers include ConAgra/Lamb Weston, Twin City foods, Resers and Pasco Processing, which was formerly JR Simplot. Lamb Weston, with more than 2,100 workers, is the fourth-largest employer in the Tri-Cities.

The Mid-Columbia provides a perfect environment for agriculture processing companies, where they are close to the food source and have adequate trasnsportation, including rail and barge access down river to the Port of Portland.

Schau said in 200, there were 28 individual food processers in Benton and Franklin counties, mostly processing potatoes and fruit juice. And the area’s wine industry, which i also tallied under food processing category by the state, included a dozen wineries with 275 year-round jobs.

Now more than 80 plants, including wineries, can be counted in the two counties.

They include the major players, a growing number of wineries, and a handful of people making speialty items, like Chukar Cherries and Apres Vin, a Prosser company that produces gourmet varietal grape seed ol.

“Food processing is one of our target industries,” said Carl Adrian, presiden of the Tri-Cities Industrial Development Council.  Adrain said much of the food processing dome in the area is “one-step” – taking fresh produce off the farms and freexing or pakcinf it, or making frozen potato products.

He said TRIDEC is researching what it can to do attract companies who produce convenience foods, like Reser’s.

“That’s the next step, pot pies, Hot Pockets – these jobs tend to require more background and many require a clean room”, he said.

The recession’s impacts on the sales of the processed convenience foods may not be great, but the economic situation is preventing many companies from expanding right now, Adrian said.

“We had a fairly significant food processor who had been looking at the area, but that project has been put on hold, partly bcause of the economy,” said Adrian. “Capital markets right now make it hard for them to expand.”

 Source: Tri City Herald

Federal stimulus money and a warm spring helped the Tri-Cities show some job growth at a time when other Washington communities are losing jobs.

Since May 2008, the Tri-Cities has gained 500 jobs in professional and business services, education and health services, leisure, hospitality and food services, said regional labor economist Dean Schau.

And since April, the local economy added 1,200 jobs — some of them seasonal — to bring the total nonfarm jobs to 95,200 in May.

That was thanks largely to Hanford and the construction, food processing, wholesale and retail trade areas, Schau said,

And though the number of workers in the community grew by 5,640 to a rate in Benton and Franklin counties dropped from 7.7 percent in April to 7.2 percent in May.

That’s a testimony to the fact that the Tri-Cities is continuing to grow, Schau told the Herald. “If you create 1,000 jobs, you’ll have 1,200 workers come in. That’s been like that for years.”

Several areas of the economy benefited from the federal stimulus money and the warmer weather that helped produce a good asparagus crop and drew tourists particularly from Western Washington.

Local employers including those in agriculture, food processing, retail and hospitality businesses, lately have come to WorkSource looking for employees for the season ahead, said Candice Bluechel, business services outreach manager at WorkSource Columbia Basin.

Many companies are even offering full-time, long-term jobs in security and transportation, she said, adding it could be a spinoff of stimulus projects.

“I’m feeling optimistic,” she said.

In contrast, Washington’s unemployment rate increased to 9.4 percent in May from the revised April unemployment rate of 9 percent, as the state lost 6,700 nonfarm jobs mostly in construction, information, financial and government areas last month.

In the Tri-Cities, the food services industry added about 100 jobs last month, and about 300 jobs since last May, said Schau, who is staying on with the state Department of Employment Security indefinitely despite his recent announcement of plans to leave the agency.

He said he suspects people are spending their money locally instead of vacationing far from home. Warm temperatures, wineries and outdoor activities may have lured many of them to the Tri-Cities.

Also, professional and business services, which includes engineering and wastes services, added 100 new jobs in May and about 400 for the year, Schau said.

For the next two to three years, Hanford cleanup will provide new jobs and save positions that were supposed to be eliminated, said Carl Adrian, president and CEO of Tri-City Development Council.

But the Tri-Cities is also being discovered by corporate America, which will help the area in the long run to diversify economically, Adrian said. For example, Cascade Natural Gas recently announced plans to move its main office to the Tri-Cities from Seattle.

Last month, the local government sector added 100 jobs as cities hired workers for summer recreational programs. But job growth in federal government has remained flat since April 2008, when it peaked at 1,300, Schau said.

The availability of a lot of fresh produce helped the warehousing sector gain 300 positions in May, compared with April. Growth in the financial services industry, which includes banking and real estate, remained stagnant. May saw a loss of 200 jobs compared with May a year ago. The health services industry also gained 100 positions in May.

Good weather helped create seasonal agricultural jobs, pushing the number of hires from 8,500 in April to 11,800 in May, Schau said. He said he expects seasonal ag hiring to continue because the cherry crop is expected to be good.

In late June and early July, workers will be needed for taking care of onions, peaches, apricots, watermelons and cantaloupe, said Bluecheel of WorkSource.

But no one is yet talking about an immediate recovery from the recession.

The state lost 116,000 jobs in the last year, a 3.0 percent decrease. “We’re still losing jobs, but at a lower rate than before,” said Mary Ayala, chief economist for the state Department of employment Security Department.

Source: Tri-City Herald