A commenter over at Piggington (my own little internet stomping ground) raised an interesting point in regard to last month’s article on San Diego employment. The reader noted that the monthly data I cite measures the number of jobs held in San Diego with no regard for whether the job holders are actually San Diego residents. There is a separate data series that tracks the employment status of San Diego residents whether they are employed in the county or elsewhere. And, for the time being, the two job surveys are providing mixed signals.
It looks like a mass exodus
It looks like a mass exodus from SD occurred beginning last October (to get into lower housing most likely) and now we are starting to see people coming back (because SD housing cost have lowered to a desired level, and there could even be a one year lease dependency). Seems to be re-enforcing the crowd that says we are likely at the bottom of this cycle. It would be great to see how these charts look relative to job losses in SD and in average rent cost and rent vacancies.
It makes sense to me that
It makes sense to me that people living here held external jobs as the local job market dropped. I think, technically, my job may be a Denver job.
I mean – I think the old bull cry of “everyone wants to live in San Diego” actually applies to this chart. If one is going to live in one city with a job in another, San Diego would be a popular choice to live. Also, there is a strong connection between here and Orange County. Lots of people live here and work there and their housing market crashed about 9 months after ours. And, it seemed our decline led everyone, except, maybe Florida.
The above post makes a smart point – that people leaving and arriving would affect these values, and that kind of stuff can mess with one’s intuition.
It’s a simple graph with complicated connotations.