A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, JUNE 30, 2021
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DOW
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BRIEFING
Home prices soar
to 15-year highs
U.S. home prices
soared in April at the fast-
est pace since 2005 as
potential buyers bid up
prices on a limited supply
of available properties.
The S&P CoreLogic
Case-Shiller 20-city home
price index, released
Tuesday, jumped nearly
15% in April from the
previous year. That is up
from a 13.4% annual gain
in March.
Still, economists said
there is little sign that the
housing market’s blister-
ing price increases are
likely to cool off soon.
“The forces that have
propelled home price
growth to new highs over
the past year remain in
place and are offering lit-
tle evidence of abating,”
said Matthew Speakman,
an economist at real es-
tate data provider Zillow.
All 20 cities that make
up the index reported
higher year-over-year
price gains in April than
the previous month. Five
cities — Charlotte, Cleve-
land, Dallas, Denver, and
Seattle — had the largest
12-month price increases
on records dating back
30 years.
Sales of existing
homes have fallen for
four straight months,
likely because soaring
prices have discouraged
some would-be buyers.
Confidence level
continues upward
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BY JOSH BOAK AND JONATHAN LEMIRE
Associated Press
LA CROSSE, Wis. — President Joe
Biden declared America urgently needs
a “generational investment” in its in-
frastructure, as he looked to sell voters
Tuesday on the economic benefits of the
$973 billion bipartisan package that still
faces an uncertain future in Congress.
Biden traveled to La Crosse, Wiscon-
sin, population 52,000, and toured its
public transit center, highlighting proj-
ects — including hybrid buses and road
repair equipment — that would receive
additional funding from the infrastruc-
ture bill. He argued that the package,
which is held together in large part by
the promise of millions of new jobs, is a
way for the United States to assert both
the principles of democracy and the
economic might that can come from
dramatic investments in the country’s
future.
“This deal isn’t just the sum of its
parts. It’s a signal to ourselves, and to the
world, that American democracy can
come through and deliver for all our
people,” said Biden. “America has always
been propelled into the future by land-
mark investments.”
He said there is a critical need to im-
prove crumbling infrastructure — from
overwhelmed power grids to lead-filled
water pipes to traffic-clogged roads —
and stressed that the effort needs to be
ambitious to not only improve Amer-
icans’ daily lives now but also to com-
bat the growing challenges of climate
change.
“We’re not just tinkering around the
edges,” Biden said.
He also made his pitch in personal
terms, reminiscing about driving a bus
during law school and noting the 1972
traffic accident that killed his first wife
and daughter, as he called for improve-
ments to make the nation’s roads safer.
The visit to Wisconsin was the be-
ginning of what the White House has
declared will be a series of presidential
trips to sell the bipartisan bill — and to
reassure the nervous Republicans who
helped craft it.
“I’m going to be out there making
the case for the American people until
this job is done, until we bring this bi-
partisan bill home,” said the president,
though he allowed that “there will be
more disagreements to be resolved,
more compromises” to be made.
Record heat wave
EURO
$1.1904 -.0020
CHERRY
GROWERS
RACE TO
HARVEST
Evan Vucci/AP
President Joe Biden speaks about infra-
structure spending Tuesday at the La
Crosse Municipal Transit Authority in La
Crosse, Wisconsin.
Picking crews working
overnight to avoid heat
BY SIERRA DAWN MCCLAIN
Capital Press
I
n a race against nature, cherry growers
across the Northwest are scrambling to
pick fruit during the record-breaking
heat wave.
Across Washington and Oregon, crews
have been working night shifts or early
mornings to avoid the heat. Some growers
are leaving large blocks of fruit on trees to
protect work crews or because the fruit, ex-
posed to too much heat too quickly, became
overripe.
Growers are moving 500,000 boxes a day,
B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherry
Growers, told the Associated Press.
“We’re right in the middle of Bing har-
vest,” said Andy Handley, a small-scale or-
chardist in East Wenatchee, Washington.
“(The heat) couldn’t have come at a worse
time.”
According to the National Weather Ser-
vice, Wenatchee has been in triple-digit heat
since Saturday: 107 degrees Fahrenheit on
Sunday, 108 on Monday and a projected 115
for Tuesday.
With nights in the 80- to 90-degree range,
most cherries have had no opportunity for
overnight chilling, crucial for size develop-
ment and firmness. The heat has also has-
tened sugar development, meaning cherries
ripen all at once, compressing the harvest
timeline.
“When it gets so hot, the fruit stops grow-
ing. And then it just starts to cook on the
trees,” said Handley.
In one orchard, Handley walked away
from 40,000 pounds — about 30% of that
orchard’s crop.
Eastern Oregon faces RV shortage
United orders
270 new jets
BY CARLOS FUENTES
The Observer
— Bulletin wire reports
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SILVER
$25.87 -.35
Roads, bridges, jobs: Biden is
selling big infrastructure deal
U.S. consumer con-
fidence rose for a fifth
month in June to the
highest level since the
pandemic began last year
as households responded
to increased vaccinations
and the further reopen-
ing of businesses.
The Conference Board
reported Tuesday that
its consumer confidence
index increased to 127.3
in June, up from a May
reading of 120.0. The
June increase reflected an
improvement in consum-
ers’ assessment of current
conditions.
Consumer sentiment
is expected to keep rising
in coming months which
will provide more support
for consumer spending,
which accounts for 70%
of economic activity.
“Consumers’ short-
term optimism re-
bounded, buoyed by ex-
pectations that business
conditions and their own
financial prospects will
continue improving in
the months ahead,” said
Lynn Franco, senior di-
rector of economic indi-
cators at the Conference
Board.
United Airlines is mak-
ing one of the largest or-
ders ever for commercial
airplanes in an aggressive
bet that air travel will re-
bound strongly from the
pandemic.
United said Tues-
day that it will buy 200
Boeing Max jets and 70
planes from Europe’s
Airbus so that it can re-
place many of its smallest
planes and some of its
oldest and have room to
grow its fleet.
It’s the biggest order in
United’s history and the
biggest by any U.S. carrier
since American Airlines
ordered 460 Boeing and
Airbus jets in 2011.
At list prices, the deals
would be worth more
than $30 billion, although
airlines routinely get deep
discounts. Figures from
Ascend by Cirium, would
put the deal around $15
billion. United declined to
disclose financial terms.
q
See Cherry / A12
The heat wave has forced cherry pickers
to work at nights or the early mornings
to avoid high temperatures. Capital Press file
LA GRANDE — In an average
year, the Thunder RV parking lot
can have as many as 45 RVs, rang-
ing from truck campers to fifth
wheels to travel trailers.
But these days, there are four RVs
sitting in the mostly empty lot at the
Island City dealership. The shortage
has lasted a full year now, with no
end in sight, according to Thunder
RV salesman Mike Weinkauf said.
“The shortage started last sum-
mer right after COVID-19 shut ev-
erything down,” he said. “I think it’s
because people are getting cabin fe-
ver and wanting to go out more.”
Thompson RV, based in Pendle-
ton, has also seen a large increase
in demand over the last year. Ac-
cording to Thompson RV Man-
ager Corrin Thompson, part of
the shortage can be attributed to
the Thompson RV being the big-
gest dealer of Outdoors RVs in the
world.
“We’re totally sold out for the
year,” she said. “We’re actually pre-
selling RVs up to 16 months in ad-
vance now. Someone might come
in today and want to order an RV,
and they won’t get it until the end
of 2022.”
Vanishing teller
jobs threaten entry
point for women
BY KEVIN ORLAND
Bloomberg
about 50% less sales this year than
normal years,” Thunder RV owner
Caleb Samson said. “The demand is
just far bigger than the supply, and
we can’t replace them at the same
rate as we’re selling them.”
Northwood Manufacturing,
which produces most of Thunder
RV’s supply, is based in La Grande
and works with 66 dealerships in
Oregon and surrounding states,
nearly all of which are also facing a
shortage.
For years, women have gotten a foot in
the door to the finance industry by becom-
ing bank tellers.
Now that path is disappearing.
The number of tellers — a job in which
four out of five positions are held by women
— has dropped more than 20% in the U.S.
and Canada in the past decade as trans-
actions move from branches to mobile
phones. The figure, already projected be-
fore the pandemic to fall further over the
next 10 years, may decline even faster after
COVID-19 lockdowns accelerated the adop-
tion of digital banking.
Technological advances are eliminating
the need for bank tellers, threatening an en-
try point for women into the male-domi-
nated industry that has sought to promote
more females to leadership roles. While the
climb remains steep, some financial compa-
nies have managed to improve the gender
balance in their executive ranks.
“I wouldn’t have been a banker without
it,” former Wells Fargo & Co. Chair Betsy
Duke, who started as a teller, said in an in-
terview. “I wouldn’t have had the career that
I had.”
See RVs / A12
See Tellers / A12
Carlos Fuentes/The Observer
A 2021 Northwood Grande Ronde sits on a mostly empty lot at Thunder RV June 15.
The increase in recreational ve-
hicle demand is not just local. Ac-
cording to the RV Industry Asso-
ciation, RV sales in the U.S. have
significantly increased during the
pandemic, with total 2021 RV ship-
ments projected to reach more than
576,000 — 18% higher than the
2017 record.
However, not all dealerships are
seeing the same sales trends.
“According to the national trend,
we should be seeing a huge increase
in sales, but we’ve actually seen