Early analyses of Census 2010 participation rates are promising for North Carolina.

You can go to the Census 2010 page to see how many of your neighbors have returned their forms. The return rate is very important, as budgets for the next ten years will be weighted by the results of this count. Right now, approximately 67 percent of households have already replied.

North Carolinians should be paying close attention to their results. As of April 14th, 69 percent of households in the state have sent their forms back in.  That is already higher than the 66 percent of households that replied in 2000.  The fact that North Carolina is trending slightly above the national average is good news.  Still, a higher rate of return would mean a lot for our state. North Carolina is one of the states on the edge of gaining an additional seat in Congress. In 2000, Utah mounted and then lost a challenge to wrest a Congressional seat from North Carolina.  This time, North Carolina is seen as competing with New Jersey. That is promising, as New Jersey is responding at just 67 percent to date. Some say that Texas could gain as many as four new seats. That promise looks to be endangered by their participation, though. Only 62 percent of households have responded.

There are some significant variations in regional response rates. The counties between Chatham (75 percent) and Buncombe are all recording rates above 70 percent. In Davie County, 75 percent of households have replied.  That is good news.  By contrast, the Sand Hills are lagging.  Only Moore County is above 70 percent. Robeson (61 percent), Hoke (63 percent), (more…)

The 2010 Census may provoke a new term in the lexicon of demographers and advocates: “white plurality.” In more and more places, the 2010 Census will show that white residents do not make up the majority of the population. More places will be majority-minority.

Four states were considered majority-minority in 2009: Hawaii, New Mexico, California, and Texas.  About one in ten American counties is already majority-minority. One city – Washington, DC, is majority-black.

What this means to a person reflects a lot about who they are. For people at the ends of the spectrum, from Tea Partiers at one side to identity-politicians on the other, the conclusions are obvious. For the rest of us, it is a confirmation of how things are changing and a reminder about re-establishing the frame of reference for how we think about our country and our communities (more…)

Unbelievable.

Citibank announced this morning that it will charge customers a $7.50 bank fee for any month when the balance on their Access or EZ checking account falls below $1,500.

Of course, what is even more upsetting is that Citibank is hardly an outlier.  If anything, they are just the latest bank to follow a new trend.  NBC reports that 54 percent of banks have raised fees on their checking accounts in the last year.  Bank of America, for example, just raised the monthly fee on its checking accounts by $3. Bank of America’s no frills MyAccess checking is touted as a service fee-free account with no minimum balance.  If you make your way to the third page of disclosures, though, you will see that it has an $8.95 monthly maintenance fee if you don’t keep $1,500 in the account without direct deposit.  So, it is true – no service fee.  Perhaps the fact (more…)

Guess what country has the nation’s best economy?  Did you guess North Dakota?  Well, then you might be right.  Sure, it is hard to exactly define best, or to pick a measure that captures the entirety of “good.”

Still, North Dakota excels.  It has a budget surplus.  Imagine that! It has an unemployment rate of just 4 percent.  In the last year, its state GDP grew 7.3 percent.

Still, it lacks a high quotient of baristas.  Its probably among the worst states in the US to get an espresso or a machiatto.  Its a good place, though, to get a 49 cent cup of coffee (watery) at a gas station outside of Fargo.

That’s interesting, but its also something of a challenge to Richard Florida‘s ongoing idea of the resilience of creative economies.  Florida doesn’t go so far as to say that more baristas will lead to more jobs, but then again, he doesn’t go too far from that suggestion, either.

It made sense when our best economies were in California and New York, paced simultaneously by high tech and high finance.  Today, our economy is changing.  Agriculture and raw resources seem to be more stable.

The country is celebrating its new leadership today, but the storm clouds are gathering and the horizon looks grim.  Yes, the Dow dropped almost five percent today and the nasdaq was off even more.

While the trouble surrounding mortgages spent several years brewing, the next crisis could come much quicker.  Some people are suggesting that a decline in consumer spending, hastened by the lack of cash from home equity, will soon paralyze commercial real estate.  People are just not going to be shopping at the mall as much.  They are going to wear that sweater another season.  They are going to keep their old flat screen.  They are not going to go out and charge new drapes and some nice pillow cases.

These are the feelings that have led directly to bankruptcies at Bombay Company, Circuit City, and Linens & Things. That a lot of jobs, but it also a lot of rent at area malls.  Already, General Growth is on the edge of bankruptcy, following the resignation of members of its founding family, the Bucksbaums. Lightstone Group, owner of Extended Stay America and several malls with about 8 million square feet of retail space, is on equally difficult footing.

But the scary part is how fast things can turn.  As one observer noted, mortgage securitizations were made up of hundreds, or even thousands, of loans.  A single loan to a developer can be worth $25 million.  If one loan goes bad, then all of the subordinated positions in a commercial cdo can be wiped out.  Ouch.  So, the change could be coming soon, and no one is going to believe it.

The implications for neighborhoods and metropolitan areas are grim.  I don’t think we really know what to expect when an entire mall shuts down.  I wonder about the implications for re-using space in exurbs.  I see some possibilities with some optimism, others (James Howard Kunstler) have a darker view.

At the very least, I think it is interesting to consider how a lower utility of suburban living might lead to demographic changes.  Jan Brueckner, a professor at UC-Irvine, suspects that without low transportation costs and safe neighborhoods, that poor households might end up congregating on the outer city.