Recession over in Pittsburgh (Crafton: for sale, buyer, price)

[trackstar13]

ML North

The size of the total labor force participation has increased in the Pittsburgh area recently. The labor force participation rate as percentage of the population is a little below the PA and national average. Additionally, the labor force participation rate as a percentage of the population for Pittsburgh is significantly lower than some high growth cities. I do agree that looking at the direction is important and the data I posted did not have this listed. I will look for more data on the labor force participation as a percentage of the population over time. Regardless of the reasons, it is still somewhat troubling that Pittsburgh lags behind in this area.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by track2514

Why would a highly paid research guru post over 20,000 times on an internet forum? It just seems like a waste of resources if you ask me.

Mostly for my own education and amusement. I actually don't consider having hobbies like that a waste of resources.

As a final point here, why do posters like BrianTH post multiple quotes in the same post? The poster he is quoting knows what they said and it just wastes a significant amount of space.

It allows tracking replies to specific parts of prior posts. It is particularly useful, perhaps even necessary, when the poster being replied to has a habit of trying to change topics without clear indications of such.

[BrianTH]

By the way, I consider it conclusively settled by the above conversation that simply looking at labor participation rates in Pittsburgh versus other cities at a snapshot in time will not give you usable information about how those respective cities are currently trending in other economic areas of interest.

But I will note one thing: if the total size of the labor force is increasing relatively rapidly in Pittsburgh, then one or two (or both) of the following things must be occurring:

(1) the labor force participation rate is increasingly relatively rapidly; or

(2) the working age population is increasingly relatively rapidly.

Neither of those two things is superficially a bad thing, so it is rather hard to spin the recent labor force increases in Pittsburgh as bad news.

[Clint.]

Employment-to-population can be interesting, although by itself doesn't address other factors, like pay, productivity, rich people who don't work, poor people who don't work, severely disabled people who have to try and work because there is no other option, etc. Here is a global picture:

[ML North]

One could also simply observe that, over the last few years, while having a somewhat lower participation rate than cities such as Charlotte or Cincinnati, Pittsburgh has had considerably higher GDP growth.

[globalburgh]

Bottom line is that people are moving to Pittsburgh because the economy is better than where they were living. Like any economic measure, labor force participation is best understood in concert with other measures such as total labor force and unemployment rate.

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by Clint.

Employment-to-population can be interesting, although by itself doesn't address other factors, like pay, productivity, rich people who don't work, poor people who don't work, severely disabled people who have to try and work because there is no other option, etc. Here is a global picture . . .

As an aside, my understanding is that another factor you need to consider is family policies, and that in fact they have a significant impact on the observed participation rates in different developed countries.

[trackstar13]

Pittsburgh still a buyer's market?

This article claims Pittsburgh is still a buyer's market due to the Zillow index that was created by their chief economist.

The Best Housing Markets for Buyers and Sellers | Daily Ticker - Yahoo! Finance

[BrianTH]

Originally Posted by track2514

Pittsburgh still a buyer's market?

Description:

Homes in these areas typically take over four months to sell and are discounted by 4%-6% from their listing prices.

That sounds about right, and thank goodness it is still true.

[Goodjules]

Originally Posted by BrianTH

Description:



That sounds about right, and thank goodness it is still true.

It was certainly true in my case in Crafton. I'm guessing that it varies somewhat by neighborhood with homes in the more desirable areas selling faster and closer to asking price (if they were priced appropriately to begin with).

OOOPS! thought the items you were quoting would show too. Not showing on my computer. Sorry.