Business activity in the Inland Empire has continued to grow, and in the context of today’s increasingly uncertain economic environment, stands in stark contrast to growth trends in the nation, according to the new Inland Empire Business Activity Index released today by the UCR School of Business Center for Economic Forecasting and Development. The region’s economy officially transitioned from recovery to expansion in the fourth quarter of 2021 and growth is forecast to continue throughout 2022.
In the first quarter of 2022 (the latest data available), business activity in the Inland Empire expanded by 4.7% compared to 6.4% in the fourth quarter of 2021. Although regional growth has slowed somewhat, it unambiguously outperformed U.S. GDP, which declined by 1.5% in the first quarter. Moreover, the regional slowdown is to be expected as the local economy has reached and surpassed pre-pandemic conditions. Over this year, the Inland Empire’s business activity is forecast to rise between 2.5% and 3.5%.
“Despite greater instability in the macroeconomy today, there are still very few, if any, signs of weakness in the Inland Empire’s economic activity,” said Taner Osman, Research Manager at the Center for Economic Forecasting and one of the Index authors. “Employment has continued to expand and the workforce in the region is now larger than it was before the pandemic, something that is not true for the state as a whole.” Osman cautions, however, that while momentum still exists, the Inland Empire will eventually share in the effects of the broader economic contraction, but not likely in 2022.
The new report also calls out the hot, inventory-constrained local housing market. According to the analysis, it would take 2 to 3 times current inventory levels to move the region out of the seller’s market it’s currently in. The Inland Empire’s high home prices are being driven by a number of other factors as well, including an increase in investor appetite for real estate in the face of a shaken stock market. Investors purchased 17.2% of the homes sold in the Inland Empire in the first quarter of this year, up from 15% one year ago.
“Today, across the entire nation, investors are buying up a larger share of homes than ever before,” said Osman. “Rising mortgage rates should help temper the double-digit price appreciation we’ve seen in the Inland Empire, but at this point we don’t foresee a scenario where home prices will decline, due largely to limited inventory.”
The analysis was authored by Taner Osman and Senior Research Associate Justin Niakamal.