June 2019 Press Release

The Capital City’s Economy Takes a Vacation in June

New Construction Slows While Existing Homes Hit All Time High Price

Tallahassee, FL – The Tallahassee Economic Index (TEI), the city’s top economic growth indicator, today released numbers ending June 2019. Following a 4.46 point slide in May, the Index saw a .23 point slip from 45.65 to 45.42 in June.

“The Index showed Tallahassee’s economy lightly tapping the brakes in June. There was almost an exactly even number of advances and declines in both, year over year and month over month changes. Lumber and other Building Materials hit a speed bump after a 14 month run of increasing seasonally adjusted growth. New Construction Permits also took a step back after two months of double-digit year over year growth.” said TEI Founder Brett F. Ewing. “An obvious bright spot continues to be the Tallahassee International Airport’s continued seasonally adjusted growth—increasing traffic for the eighth month in a row. This June saw the most traffic in any June since 2007.”

“June saw a bit of a stalemate in the index, with seasonal slowdowns in consumer discretionary categories leading the way down. Initial Claims for Reemployment Assistance did recover from the spike up in May but is still two percent worse off than June of last year.” Said Lance Mitchell, Director of Research at the TEI. “With the significant move down in interest rates, mortgages continue to become more compelling and that served to spur housing in June. Median Sales Price hit an all-time high at $250,000 for an existing single-family home in Leon County overtaking the previous record of $244,500 from June of 2017.”

• Realtor Sales grew 4.32 percent from May, but contracted .3 percent from last June
• New Construction Building Permits fell 30.56 percent MoM, and 34.21 percent YoY
• Airport Traffic descended 5.3 percent from last month, but climbed 6.83 percent from June of 2018