National Economic News
The month of September started out with a wallop, due to the impact of Hurricane Katrina. The national unemployment rate was at a four year low of 4.9 percent, when the hurricane touched down and devastated the Gulf Coast. Economists estimate a loss of up to 1 million jobs for the short term, and possibly 500,000 for the long term. (The Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 3, 2005).
Despite the improvement in the national economy, wages have remained stagnant and barely keeping up with inflation. (The Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 3, 2005).
Experts predicted that the economic impact of Hurricane Katrina could top $1 Billion, impacting upon fuel prices and other goods, slowing spending, and slowing the movement of trade goods into and out of the U.S. (The Denver Post, Sep. 7, 2005).
Existing home sales in the U.S. surged in August to their second highest level ever, while prices reached their all-time high. (The Denver Post, Sep. 27, 2005).
Following Hurrican Katrina, consumer confidence suffered its largest drop in 15 years. Analysts were concerned about consumer spending for the rest of the year. (The Denver Post, Sep. 28, 2005).
At the end of September, the U.S. stock market experienced its best third quarter in seven years, despite the impacts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The S&P 500 gained 3.2 percent, the Dow gained 2.86 percent and the Nasdaq gained 4.61 percent. (The Denver Post, Oct. 1, 2005).
Regional Economic News
Economist Tucker Hart Adams warned that economic growth in Colorado will slow in 2006, due to rising interest rates and higher energy costs. (The Denver Post, Sep. 14, 2005).
The Colorado unemployment rate dropped from 5.3 percent in July to 5.0 percent in August. The Colorado work force reached a record of 2.233 million workers. The nonfarm work-force total is only 15,000 short of its all-time high reached in December, 2000. (The Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 17, 2005).
As a result of increases in natural gas prices, home energy bills will likely rise as much as 49 percent over the upcoming winter. (The Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 17, 2005).
Colorado bankruptcies were up 13 percent in September over the same period last year. For the month alone, new filings rose 30 percent. (The Rocky Mountain News, Sep. 24, 2005).
The metro Denver housing market declined in September as compared to the same period a year ago. Median home prices dropped 2 percent from August and the number of homes closed dropped from a year ago. (The Denver Post, Sep. 28, 2005).
The unemployment rate in metro Denver fell to 4.9 percent in August, its lowest rate since 2001. (The Denver Post, Sep. 29, 2005).
Housing price increases slowed in the Boulder-Longmont area, ending a six quarter run of price increases. (The Boulder County Business Report, Sep. 16-29, 2005).
