Source for Estimated Median Family Income Data

While searching for data sources for a project, I stumbled on a source for current estimates of Median Family Income (MFI) at the Census tract level. Below I've posted a description of this data source as well as a challenge to the blog readers.

The data uses normalized Census 2000 data to calculate the estimates based on the current Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Median Family Income estimates (HUD) of the metro area. The data is hosted by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council (FFIEC). The formula for these estimates is as follows,

2009 Tract MFI = 2009 HUD estimated MFI for the Metro area X Tract MFI percentage (calculated),
where Tract MFI percentage = Census 2000 tract MFI / 2004 statewide MFI

To access this data for the tracts in your county, you may visit the FFIEC’s Census Report tool.

Because the formula is based largely on Census 2000 figures, the estimates would likely not accurately represent the MFI for tracts that have seen significant change. I've yet to compare the estimates to other private data sources, so if you’d like to see how these numbers compare to others for your area, post a comment making that request and I’ll run the numbers for the County with the most requests.

Lastly, if you are looking for MFI for a grant, more than likely you’ll have to stick with the Census 2000 numbers or the new American Community Survey estimates (currently only available for geographies of over 20,000).

Chris Ramser

Small Town Economic Development

Most people know how I feel about long reports, but the Small Towns, Big Ideas project at UNC is worth checking out. The website offers a searchable database where you can peruse case studies by type of community (e.g., towns with historic downtowns or prominent cultural or heritage assets), strategy (e.g., arts/creative economy), or population. I also love the fact that you can narrow your search to "long, analytic case studies" or "short, descriptive case studies". Brian Kelsey

How Many Startups Provide Health Insurance?

Scott Shane over at Economix posted a good summary yesterday of what we know about "how the health care mess affects entrepreneurship." According to the Kauffman Firm Survey, which tracks a sample of nearly 5,000 businesses started in 2004, and other sources from the Kaiser Family Foundation and U.S. Small Business Administration:

• 29.5 percent of new employers provide health insurance to full-time workers
• Majority of businesses with three to nine employees do not offer health insurance
• 49.3 percent of self-employed workers have employment-based health coverage, compared to 70.5 percent of wage and salary workers

Check out the full post for more interesting statistics--and keep in mind that more than one out of five workers in Austin-Round Rock are self-employed. Brian Kelsey

How do you do regional economic development?

We'll be pilot-testing a one-day curriculum on economic development, with an emphasis on regionalism, in Michigan this week with the National Association of Development Organizations. The training will be based on the Know Your Region curriculum developed by Western Carolina University for the Economic Development Administration. Depending on how it goes this week, we may do a workshop here in Austin if people are interested. If you'd like a copy of the slides, let us know by emailing Brian, and we'll send you a link next week.

Unemployment Rate Up Nearly 1% in Austin-Round Rock Area

According to the Texas Workforce Commission, the unemployment rate across Texas rose to 7.5% in June, but remained two percentage points below the U.S. rate of 9.5%. The rate for the Austin-Round Rock metro area was 7.1%, which was a 0.9% increase from May. For the ten counties in the CAPCOG region, the rate also increased by nearly a point to 7.0%. There were 9,300 more unemployed individuals in the CAPCOG area compared to a month ago, while the number of employed people also increased by 2,200 from the total one month ago.

Compared to the other 24 metro areas in Texas, Austin-Round Rock’s unemployment rate was tied for the second lowest increase from May to June 2009. So I guess that is one small piece of good news in this latest release. Below is a table of how Texas’ metro areas measure up in this statistic.

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We’ll continue to monitor the unemployment data releases and post information on our Data Points blog. To view an employment summary for the counties in our region, please this site.

Chris Ramser

Existing Industry Appreciation Night in Round Rock

Thanks to Charley Ayres and the rest of the folks at the Round Rock Chamber of Commerce for inviting us to speak last night at their annual Existing Industry Appreciation Night. Judging from the number of people in the room, it's clear that economic development efforts in Round Rock have strong support from both the private and public sectors.

A few highlights from the brief presentation we did:

• Round Rock has grown by approximately 41,500 residents since 2000--roughly the equivalent of adding an entire Pflugerville.
• Round Rock's jobs to housing ratio, a key metric for understanding the balance between community development and economic development, is 1.6 jobs per housing unit. That exceeds the U.S. average of 1.4 and is only slightly behind Austin at 1.9.
• Round Rock is clearly tied to the regional economy. Nearly 80% of Round Rock residents cross a county boundary for work. At the same time, companies in Round Rock employ more Austin residents (22%) than Round Rock residents (20%).
• Taxable retail sales per capita in Round Rock exceeded $10,000 in 2008, one of the highest figures in the region.
• Companies in Round Rock produced $8 billion in total gross sales last year.
• Sales in 2008 were down for many industries, but Round Rock's creative class was a bright spot. Creative class companies--professional, scientific, and technical services--achieved 39% growth in sales last year compared to 2007.

Here's a link to download the full presentation on Round Rock economic development.

Asset Mapping: Telling Good Stories About Your Community's Competitive Advantage

We've been busy this summer collecting data for a regional asset map, which will go into our new economic development strategy for 2010-2015. Asset mapping is really just planning jargon for doing what all good economic developers do anyway: maintaining an inventory of all the things that make your city or county a competitive location for business, people, etc.

Here are two examples I really like because they are web-based and interactive, as opposed to a document that sits on a shelf somewhere:

Twin Cities Compass
Florida's Great Northwest

The communication medium is critical for getting information across to people, especially when you are talking about community and economic research. Florida's Great Northwest asset mapping website works equally well with site selectors, media, elected officials, and the general public. This is what differentiates economic development programs these days.

Ever Wonder About Fast Growing Industries Outside Austin?

Thanks to Workforce Solutions Rural Capital Area for publishing an excellent new resource for labor market information in the region. As you can probably guess, we're big fans of one-stop shopping for understanding key trends. This new data tool covers much of what you need to know about local economies outside Austin. Go check it out.

Census Bureau Releases City Population Figures

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual population estimates for U.S. cities and the Austin Business Journal has published an article highlighting some of the major findings from this data release. The article can be found online here.

It's no secret that many cities in the Capital Area region have experienced high rates of growth over the past decade. We've put together a map and a couple of tables that highlight some of the new population data. Note, the population figures are as of July 1, 2008.

The map shows the population of each city in our region and categorizes both the numeric growth (by size of each dot) and the percentage growth (by the color of each dot) over the past year from 2007-2008. Check the map out, here.

There are also many interesting oneliners that can be said of growth in the cities of our region. The first table shows the population estimates and percent and numeric change for some of the biggest gainers. Cities were selected in this list based on whether they were in the Top 100 in the U.S. or Top 50 in Texas for percent or numeric growth from 2000 to 2008 or 2007 to 2008. While the second table shows where that city ranks in those lists versus other Texas and U.S. cities.

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Before we start comparing though, we must advise that comparing percentage growth for a large city like Austin (2.5% from 2007-2008) to a small town like Round Top (7.7% from 2007 to 2008) may not be the best comparision. It might better to group cities by relative size.

Chris Ramser