Shoals avoiding crisis

Latest figures indicate the Shoals continues to sidestep the economic crises being felt in much of the country.

The housing market, particularly, appears stable, according to the Alabama Center for Real Estate. This is during a time when foreclosures continue to make headlines nationally.

"In the state of Alabama, we're not comparatively in that economic decline," said Joan Baltes, an economics professor at Northwest-Shoals Community College.

The latest numbers show home sales in the Shoals remained steady at 154 in July, with an average selling price of about $152,100, ranking among the highest total for the year. The average days on market continues to remain low at 81 in July.

"Our housing market never got overinflated like in other sections of the United States," Baltes said. "What goes up, must come down. If it goes up with nothing to back it, it's going to come down with nothing to back it."

As an example, she said she has a relative who bought a home in Stafford, Va., for $209,000 in 1998. The home was put on the market in 2007 at an asking price of $525,000. "Now he can't get $400,000 for it."

Baltes said local homeowners and real estate agents deserve a lot of credit for avoiding the temptations that caused problems elsewhere.

She said they haven't tried to manipulate the local market. She said local real estate agents seem to be choosing to focus on selling several homes at reasonable prices, rather than selling one home at a highly inflated price. That helps avoid an inflated market.

The unemployment rate for August in the Shoals was 5.5 percent, representing a drop from 6.2 percent in July. That figure, though, is up from 4.5 percent in August 2007.

Combined taxable retail sales from Colbert and Lauderdale counties amounted to about $177.3 million, which was about the same as June, but up some $23 million from July 2007.

Lodging taxes for July were $106,193, up some $13,000 from July 2007.

Baltes said hotels could have been aided in July by such events as the W.C. Handy Music Festival, but it appears the Shoals is becoming more of a tourism destination. The area had often been called the "best kept secret" for years.

"The Shoals is getting the best-kept secret out," Baltes said, pointing to locations such as the luxury Marriott Shoals Hotel and Spa and twin Robert Trent Jones golf courses.

"We also didn't have a burnt-up summer, as in last year's drought," she said. "It was a nicer summer. With gas prices up, people probably traveled locally more than long-distance-wise."

Kerry Gatlin, dean of the University of North Alabama College of Business, said the Shoals has a diverse economy these days, which helps avoid major highs and lows.

"Our economy doesn't tend to be a bellweather of the national economy," Gatlin said. "We don't catch those peaks and valleys quite as well as other areas do."

Still, he said the area's economy may be starting to react to the drop-off in the national economy. "We generally in Alabama tend to lag from the trend of the rest of the country's economy, so we probably are not experiencing the falloff in housing sales and retail sales that the rest of the country is."

Bernie Delinski can be reached at 740-5739 or bernie.delinski@TimesDaily.com.