Summer’s arrival brings good news for Albuquerque’s recovery: here’s why

(2 min read)

Juliana Vadnais, Data Journalist for Albuquerque Business First:

Albuquerque Business First's Recovery Index brings you some good news this month.

The Albuquerque economy improved to 81.9 percent recovered from the recession,up from last month when it was 79 percent recovered. Summer is almost here and with it comes the season of homebuying and travel, which typically boosts home sale prices, housing permits and air passengers.

Those three factors each rose, with housing permits doubling from 15.6 percent recovered in May to 31.3 percent recovered in June. Home sales prices rose from 90.7 percent to 93.4 percent recovered, at $185,000, and air passengers rose from 64.4 percent to 66.3 percent recovered.

Occupancy rates for office and retail space were updated, with 2016 Q1 rates changing retail occupancy to 93.5 percent occupied (101.7 percent recovered) and office occupancy to 91.9 percent occupied (89.8 percent recovered). The average asking price for class A office space in 2016 Q1 is $20.59 per square foot. Average asking price for retail is $14.23 for neighborhood and $13.81 for strip.

Private and government jobs stayed around the same, with private sector jobs increasing about one percentage point and government jobs decreasing the same.

See the infographic here for the historical data for new housing permits, whose percentage of recovery doubled from the May to June index. While some of the these categories are continually on the rise, with a couple of them reaching and exceeding 100 percent, others are making slow improvements or seeing ups and downs throughout the year. Click here to read more.