Los Angeles County’s homeless population rose 15% from 2011 to 2013, to 57,737, a total second only to New York City. By contrast, the number of homeless Americans declined 6% since 2010, to 610,042, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
At the end of the third quarter, 13.2% of homeowners with a mortgage remained underwater in the L.A. metro region, a decline from 25.9% in the same period last year, according to real estate firm Zillow, which released the data Thursday.
California’s finances are bouncing back after a lengthy recession, and tax revenues are primed for strong growth over the next several years, according to a report issued Wednesday by the Legislature’s budget analyst.
California’s budget is on track for multibillion dollar surpluses in the coming years, the Legislature’s nonpartisan fiscal analyst said Wednesday in an upbeat assessment of the state’s fiscal picture.
Personal income growth slowed in 2012 in most of the nation’s 381 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), according to estimates released today by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Personal income growth slowed in 311 MSAs, accelerated in 65 MSAs, and remained unchanged in 5 MSAs. On average, MSA personal income rose 4.2 percent in 2012, after growing 6.0 percent in 2011. Personal income growth ranged from 12.1 percent in Midland, Texas to -1.6 percent in Yuma, Arizona, one of only five MSAs where personal income declined in 2012. Inflation, as measured by the national price index for personal consumption expenditures, slowed to 1.8 percent in 2012 from 2.4 percent in 2011.
The U.S. Census Bureau said retail and food services sales increased 3.9 percent compared with the previous October.
In its annual water allocation estimate, usually issued around Dec. 1, the department projects that it will be able to fill only 5 percent of the water requests it has received from the 29 water agencies it contracts with – agencies that serve about two-thirds of California’s population. Only once before – in 2010 – did the department issue a similarly low estimate of available water.
A $1.47-billion proposal to add toll lanes to a traffic-clogged 14-mile stretch of the 405 Freeway from Long Beach to Costa Mesa has met with wide opposition from officials and residents in the six cities along the route. Civic leaders said they fear the plan could be a harbinger of more toll roads to come.
With the social media frenzy at a fever pitch, people may be excused for thinking that Silicon Valley is still the main engine for growth in the technology sector. But a close look at employment data over time shows that tech jobs are dispersing beyond the Valley and its much-celebrated urban annex of San Francisco.
By the U-6 measure, California’s employment distress rate is 18.3 percent for the 12 months ending June 30, according to a new report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. California’s rate is second only to Nevada’s 19 percent and four percentage points higher than the national rate of 14.3 percent.
California’s 11 ports, from Humboldt Bay in the north to San Diego in the south, generate more than $40 billion in annual economic activity. They create hundreds of thousands of jobs dockside as well as inland where cargo is loaded onto trucks or trains for delivery across North America, mainly to Mid-West hubs like Chicago and St. Louis.
The company attributed a third consecutive drop in U.S. comparable-store sales to a laundry list of macroeconomic headwinds when it reported earnings last week. Wal-Mart, which forecast continued gloominess through year-end, told analysts it would watch to see if the federal health-care law would take yet another chunk out of customers’ pocketbooks.
Throughout this summer and fall, California’s gasoline prices have hovered about 40 to 45 cents per gallon above the national average. The difference has sometimes reached 50 cents.
At its annual awards gala on Thursday, the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp. named Lancaster as the most business-friendly city with a population over 50,000, while La Mirada was chosen the most business-friendly among cities with fewer than 50,000 people.
Today’s policies to combat climate change cost much more than the benefits they produce. Unfortunately, bad political choices often make these policies even less cost-effective.