Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Coast river business journal. (Astoria, OR) 2006-current | View Entire Issue (May 18, 2022)
BUSINESS COMMENT 2 COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL Publisher’s Notebook Matt Winters • May 2022 It’s not your imagination: Our communities are growing M y friend Dian Barker-Sayce, now-retired vice president of the Bank of the Pacifi c, and I used to almost rub our hands in glee with each new release of census estimates and other wonky demographic information. When you care about our communities as we do, it’s gratifying to gain new insights into how they are doing. Data turns hunches into knowledge. It doesn’t take a crystal ball to know that the towns around the Columbia River estuary and neighboring seashore are growing. Rol- licking real estate sales and home construction are undeniable. Between the April 1, 2020, c ensus and July 1, 2021, Clatsop County added 738 full-time residents, climbing to a population just under 42,000. The county had the sixth highest rate gain among Ore- gon’s 36 counties and second highest among the 19 large counties with populations of 40,000 or more, trailing only Deschutes County. Deschutes is famously home to the growth juggernaut of Bend, so for Clatsop to be mentioned in the same breath is startling. The big nationwide headline out of the latest c ensus data is that Clatsop County was the fastest growing county in northwest Or- egon between 2020 and 2021, the U.S. Census Bureau reported. Neighboring Pacifi c County experienced the ninth highest per- centage increase among Washington state’s 39 counties. deaths exceeded births in two-thirds of U.S. counties. This was true in Clatsop, where there were 367 births to 488 deaths. It is only thanks to in-migration of 848 that the population grew. Relocations from other states accounted for nearly all growth. The same pattern held in Pacifi c County, where deaths outnumbered births 399 to 167, and 720 new residents moved in, of whom 96% were from elsewhere in the U.S. Pacifi c County’s population rose by 2.5% from April 2020 to July 2021, to nearly 24,000. In percentage terms, it grew ninth fast- est among Washington state’s 39 counties. It was fi fth fastest in west- ern Washington, trailing No. 1 San Juan Islands at 4.3%, and three southwest Washington counties: Wahkiakum, 3.6%, Mason, 2.9%, and Lewis, 2.7%. It’s interesting to see this growth spurt in the state’s southwestern corner, which stalled out for decades after traditional for- estry jobs evaporated. July 1, 2020, was still early in the pandemic. It will be fascinating to learn whether these trends are continuing. I suspect they are, though at some point, growth may run into a lack of housing inventory. But if even a fraction of current vacation home owners move here full time, they will be welcome contributors to our society and economy. Precision Heating customers in Washington Never fear blackouts again because of solar batteries Did you know?... “If ever w y a ou solar, 2 nted the ye 0 a 22 is r!” -Stan the Solar Ma n Stanley Tussing and Charles Waddell installing solar on Marsh’s Free Museum CALL (360)642-4272 SOL SAL AR E! You can use Solar power in the day, battery power in the night, never fear a power outage again. Battery prices have dropped 45% and the huge rebates are going away this year. PRECISION HEATING & Indoor Air Quality 360-642-4272 stan.tussing@gmail.com www.usa-heating.com
