March 2018 Press Release

Local Economy Continues Gradual Deceleration Seasonally Adjusted Negative Moves Outweigh Areas of Growth

Tallahassee, FL – The Tallahassee Economic Index (TEI), the city’s top economic growth indicator, today released numbers ending March 2018. After a 2.08 point drop in February, the Index lost 2.50 points from 48.21 to 45.71 in March.

“The Index skid lower for the third time in 2018, marking three straight months of deceleration in the local economy. We finally saw lumber sales slip, falling 10.54 percent from March of 2017. Lumber has not had a negative year over year move since January of 2017​, ” said TEI Founder Brett F. Ewing. “ One bright spot has been the Tallahassee International Airport. Airport traffic grew for the third straight month in a row and seasonally adjusted, it has increased for the past six months.

“The TEI experienced continued downward pressure in March as growth continued to flatten in the first quarter of 2018,” said Lance Mitchell, Director of Research at the TEI.“Business spending has gotten off to a weak start as office equipment and supplies has now registered lower numbers for each month of 2018 versus 2017. On the bright side, we saw yet another month of residential home price growth as the median sales price hit the highest levels the capital city has ever seen in the month of March.

• Initial Claims for Reemployment Assistance dropped by 20.77 percent from February, and 4.3 percent from March of last year
• Realtor Sales moved up in March, surpassing February by 39.55 percent, but fell by 1.9 percent from last March
• Median Existing Home Sales Prices gained 2.50 percent from February, and jumped 14.90 percent from last March
• Airport Traffic grew 15.16 percent from last month, and 6.51 percent from March of last year
• New Construction Permits jumped 31.43 percent higher from February but dipped 26.98 percent from last March