NEVADA COUNTY WASHOUT

The Federal Reserve of St. Louis' chart above shows, even during the economic downturn, Nevada County continued to grow as a population all but the first half of the 2011. While it would be pure speculation as to what happened at that time. Click here for the sale information of the Grass Valley Group which occurred Jan 3, 2011. May be the Francisco Partners resigned some of it's workers, again pure speculation on my part. 


I ran a search of the sold property in Nevada County MLS from Jan 3, 2011 to June 14, 2011 and found 477 homes were sold. Of those the median price was $226,950. During the same period this year there were 550 properties sold with a median price of $220,000. Interest rates are near all time lows and that combined with lower prices the volume is picking up.

Regardless of the population trends being positive, the civilian labor force age population has also shown positive signs as they have increased since the late spring of 2011. There must be jobs in Nevada County which are attracting workers. The under-pinning of the local economy as well as the local housing market must have a washout period prior to stabilizing. That occurred in the first quarter of 2011.

When a local economy goes through a prolonged population retraction it is said to become a trend and trends are tough to change. The trend in Nevada County is positive, while we have added fewer residents year over year, the chart shows we are still adding to our population and the population that is moving into our neighborhoods are working people. Which is positive for all small business.

If the housing market is a gauge to the local economy then we have seen the washout and we have stabilized.

Scott Hopper - Realtor, 530.477.2277