HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
AMAZON AND THE BATTLE FOR TOMORROW’S COMMUNITIES
After The Amazon Decision In the coming year Amazon will announce the HQ2 winner and one result is that 237 economic development offices will need to rethink their options. How can their communities grow and prosper in an environment where wages and jobs are being downsized, rightsized, outsourced, and off-shored? Will large numbers of American towns and counties go the way of the shopping mall, the retail kingdoms that once symbolized the national economy?
Flint — the Michigan city decimated by the fall of the domestic auto industry and then thrust into the national spotlight with a massive water crisis — has just announced that GM will spend $79 million to improve its Flint Assembly Center. The Lear Corporation is building a new seat manufacturing facility that will employ 600 people. Tellingly, the plant — the first to be constructed in the city in 30 years — will be located on the former site of the historic Buick City complex. C3 Venture, a manufacturer of plastic vehicle parts, has added almost 400 jobs in the past year. Ten philanthropies, led by the C.S. Mott Foundation, have pledged $125 million to help the city.
Despite low unemployment, rising wages, huge corporate profits, and massive run-ups on Wall Street prosperity is not universal. The National Association of Realtors reports that in the third quarter annual home prices gains were seen in 162 out of 177 metropolitan statistical areas. The same report showed that 15 areas had price declines. Like ghost towns in the old west, populations in such places will decline, young people will move away, home prices will drop, tax revenues will fall, and buildings will decay. Destinations no longer, such empty places will emerge as dingy monuments to an economy which once was.
Looking ahead we are likely to see three paths going forward.
First, and unfortunately, there will be a number of communities which fall behind.
Second, many communities will fight to remain relevant.
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DECEMBER 2017 | ATTOM DATA SOLUTIONS
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