Grand Junction Blog

Mesa County, Colorado economic statistics continue to lag behind the rest of the country and Colorado. In this case, unemployment numbers are about a year behind just about everywhere else. Mesa County unemployment rates are the highest in Colorado.

The Grand Junction area unemployment rate hit a current-recession high in January, climbing to 9.4 percent in the metropolitan area. According to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, 7,400 people in Grand Junction were unemployed in January, up from 4,700 in January 2009.

The Grand Junction area was just beginning to experience sweeping job losses in January 2009, when the local unemployment rate was 5.5 percent.
A jump from December’s 8.9 percent unemployment rate was expected because of cold weather, which usually impedes job growth. The Mesa County Workforce Center posted 110 to 115 job orders on average in January, job orders hovered closer to 130 to 150 in February and March. Officials are optimistic unemployment numbers will look better for the next few months because of pending warmer weather conducive to outdoor employment.

A continuing drop is evident in unemployment benefit filings. Initial filings reached a record high of 1,012 in March 2009, but were down to 560 in February.

The U.S. Department of Labor estimates 9,000 Coloradans will lose their benefits by the end of this week if further extensions are not approved by Congress. Colorado has the 10th largest amount of people in the United States facing the end of their benefits. Thirty states and the District of Columbia would see 300 or more people drop from their benefits list.

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Grand Junction, Colorado gains a huge benefit from the surrounding scenic sights that attract the tourist trade. The Canyonland area centering around Moab, Utah is just one compass area of our rich recreationand scenic resources.

Unlike most of the nation; Moab, Utah is in the midst of a commercial building boom. Five new construction projects — a regional hospital, two new school buildings, a community center and a new bridge – will benefit the residents here, and ultimately the significant tourist traffic.

Moab has a population of some 5,000 residents and estimates about one million visitors each year ogle its dramatic vistas, partake in a plethora of recreational activities. Canyonlands National Park, Arches National Park, and Dead Horse Point are in the backyard. Many other scenic wonders are close by. This makes Moab a center for tourists to congregate for any number of day trips.

It’s mostly by chance that the town’s capital-improvement projects are springing up simultaneously. Most of the five capital projects are run and funded by separate entities. Taken together though, and the sum is indicative of a resurgent and stable tourist trade and town.

Voters in 2008 passed a $31 million bond issue for Grand County School District to build a new elementary school and a vocational school. Project one is the 120,000-square-foot Helen M. Knight Elementary School, with 35 classrooms. It will replace two elementary schools. District officials determined they could save $7 million by combining two schools. The bond measure specified that any excess money after construction costs go toward remodeling the middle school. A current savings of $500,000, because of lower costs will go toward that project. Construction is slated for completion in July.

Officials and residents were thrilled to see ground broken last August for the Moab Regional Hospital and Canyonlands Care Center. The not-for-profit Allen Memorial Hospital has been recognized as long needing replacement of the 53-year-old, outdated facility. The 52,000-square-foot facility will be licensed as a 17-bed, critical-access hospital and operated by Moab Valley Health Care. It is scheduled to be finished by December.

Colorado River runners under the bridge have been good about steering clear of construction, and motorists have been patient. Financial effect on local commercial business has been minimal.

Officials worked for three years to come up with grant money to secure funding for the new Moab Recreation and Aquatic Center.

The town of Moab doesn’t have a property tax. This makes funding harder to come by for capital improvements. It does collect taxes through tourist-based activities. Costs for the center with an indoor-outdoor pool are $9 million and probably would cost more if construction costs weren’t hampered by the economy. The project is expected to be completed in spring 2011. Town leaders easily recognized that if an entity has the funds, now is the perfect time to build for the future.

Colorado River Bridge, connecting U.S. Highway 191 over the river, is slated for completion at the end of the year, which is a year earlier than previously planned. Aesthetic designs on the bridge were developed with the help of community members. Once completed, the swooping design should fit well with the redrock backdrops. Project workers were especially cognizant of the bridge’s link between Moab and its most famed attraction, Arches National Park.

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The bad economic and housing statistics continue to get worse for Mesa County, Colorado. Mesa County led the 11 Front Range counties in foreclosures, both initiated and completed (of the 12 most populous counties in Colorado). This according to a report published by the Colorado Division of Housing.

The greatest percentage increase was in January 2010 compared to January 2009 in initial foreclosure filings, and it had the greatest percentage increase this January compared to January 2008. The foreclosures initiated in January 2010 were more than double the amount initiated in January 2009 and more than triple the amount initiated in January 2008.

Foreclosure completions jumped 338 percent from last January to this January and increased 483 percent from the first month of 2008 to the first month of 2010. Mesa County also led the field in foreclosure-sale increases. The foreclosures completed in January 2010 were more than four times the amount completed in January 2009 and nearly six times the amount completed in January 2008.

The more one studies the foreclosure staistics, the more it is apparent Mesa County is yet a lagging indicator of the Colorado, and national, economy. Eight of the 12 counties experienced a decline in foreclosure filings from January 2008, when foreclosures on the Front Range had been on the rise for months, to January 2010. Mesa County didn’t fully join the trend until 2009. In all but two counties, Mesa and Boulder, foreclosure sales decreased in the first month of 2010 compared to the first month of 2008.

The Mesa County Public Trustee’s office has received 106 new foreclosure filings this month, as of Feb. 19. Mesa County placed seventh among the 12 counties for total foreclosure filings last month and 10th in foreclosure sales.

There was one positive ray of optimism in the home sales statistics. Home sales in Mesa County were up 46 percent in January 2010 compared with January 2009.Reportedly, 99 homes were sold in the Grand Junction metropolitan area January 2010, compared with 68 homes sold in January 2009. Home prices however, continue to decline. The average home sale price was $206,667 in January 2009 and dropped to $192,222 in January 2010.

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The million-dollar-plus real estate market is projected to take a huge hit in 2010. The luxury resort ski-town market is no exception. Steamboat Springs, Colorado will see a significant auction of luxury condos in March.

Under pressure from the new lender, The Highmark’s developer will auction off 15 units next month with minimum bids as low as $630,000 — or $407 per square foot, down from $1,185 per square foot two years ago. The Highmark sold the first of its 23 luxury condos for $3.17 million in 2008 and planned to wrap up sales that same year.

It didn’t happen. The Highmark’s lender failed in August 2008, and credit markets froze following the collapse. Steamboat Ventures Limited says it has invested $300,000 to hold its auction. It’s been pressured to unload its condos since the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took over its lender, Integrity Bank in Georgia, in 2008. The minimum bid for a two-bedroom unit with a den and three bathrooms is $630,000. The auctioneer has indicated that if a single party wants all fifteen available units, they’d get an even better deal.

Steamboat Ventures Limited says it expects the company will lose $15 million on the project.

Surrounding residents kick themselves for the now-inflated values they are saddled with, but they’re also very re;ieved to see them sold. They realize the value of having neighbor residents.

Some prices for ski town real estate have fallen 10 to 30 percent from their peak, depending on the market and product. High-end buyers are looking for bargains, said Dennis Hanlon, president of the Western Mountain Resort Alliance. Since Christmas activity has picked up along with the stock market, as people who put off purchasing a second or third home reconsider, Hanlon said. The Alliance represents 13 markets around the West.

Inquiries on the condos have been about evenly split between Coloradans along Colorado’s populous Front Range that includes Denver and potential buyers from New York, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, which have direct flights to Steamboat Springs during ski season.

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The natural gas lobby has seized on an often-used and effective public relations tactic of connecting the coasts of the US. It needs to be possible to drive from coast to coast using natural gas as the only fuel.
Currently, the only geographic area that prevents that is from Denver to Price, Utah or Cedar City Utah. There are no commercial natural gas stations here. This is especially troublesome when it’s noted that we have the largest natural gas reserves in the country.

Infrastructure mediums from the US mail to the telegraph, and telephone, railroad, and interstate highway system have realized the public relations advantage to pushing coast connectivity. It would be only natural that attention now would turn to how cheaply and efficiently that travel could be.

The Western Slope Colorado Oil and Gas Association wrote to U.S. Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., last week, asking him to help make compressed natural gas available for use in that stretch as a transportation fuel and to speak at a “Missing Miles Forum” next summer.

The 3rd Congressional District, which Salazar represents, “serves as a national hindrance to CNG-powered alternative-fuel vehicles and is a significant missing link related to national highway connectivity,” the association wrote to Salazar.

The federal government could help immediately by reinstating a 50-cent-per-gallon excise-tax rebate that would allow retailers to offer lower prices to consumers. The rebate expired Dec. 31 and there have been no efforts in Congress to revive it. Tax incentives to potential sellers would help because of the prohibitive expense of building compressed-natural-gas filling stations, which can cost $500,000 for a small station or $1 million for a larger one.

Colorado had compressed-natural-gas filling stations until the early part of this century, when the network fell apart for lack of demand.

It just doesn’t seem to make any sense to push corn and ethanol as an alternative fuel and ignore natural gas in an area that produces natural gas for the nation and actually uses corn for food. If you ever have the opportunity to eat the ‘Sweet Corn’ we grow here, you’ll hava a hard time agreeing to put it in a gas tank.

And if you’re driving over it, you might easily ask yourself why not put that in your tank instead.

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