Abilene economy on 52-month growth streak

ABILENE – The Abilene Economic Index (AEI) increased in July to 124.1 up from 123.9 in June, and is up 3.1 points from the July 2014 AEI of 120.3, according to economist Karr Ingham.

The general expansion in the Abilene metro area economy has been underway for well over four years at this point and remains in place even in the face of depressed crude oil and natural gas prices.

• Real taxable spending is up 1.8 percent from first eight months of last year.
• Employment growth remains below 1 percent.
• 500 jobs added in the last year.
• Unemployment down to 4 percent.
• Real auto sales total is down about 11 percent.
• Building permits totaled $26.5 million in July 2015. It was easily a record for the month of July and up by more than 26 percent compared to July of a year ago.
• The number of closed sales in July exceeded 200 for the first time since 2007, and in fact the July 2015 sales total is the second-highest on record for the month of July behind only the 246 sales in July 2007.