Pacific Northwest Home to Nation’s Best Economy

A new report from WalletHub concluded that the State of Washington has the best state economy so far in 2019.

Washington ranked first in overall economic activity, fourth in economic health and second in “innovation potential.” Washington also had the highest Gross Domestic Product growth in the nation, followed by Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Florida.

WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia across the metrics: Economic activity, economic health, and innovation potential. It then evaluated those dimensions using 28 other metrics, and the markets graded on a 100-point scale.

The states of Utah, Massachusetts, California, Colorado, the District of Columbia, Idaho, Oregon, New Hampshire, and North Carolina rounded out the top-10 best economies.

Alaska was on the bottom of the list for the worst economy, boosting the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 6.5%.

Other states found to have poor-performing economies were West Virginia, Hawaii, Mississippi, and Louisiana.

Virginia was reported to having the highest median household income so far in 2019, with New York having the lowest.

The national economy received good news in May as the Federal Government announced the unemployment rate fell to 3.6% and wages increased 3.2% year-over-year.

April also saw the addition of 263,000 jobs, which was the strongest month for job growth since January and the 103rd straight month of gains.

Realtor.com’s Chief Economist, Danielle Hale, said the reported earnings growth of 3.2% is higher than the home sales price growth reported in March by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), in every region except the Midwest. NAR reported home prices in March were $259,400, up 3.8% from March 2018.

“Wages that are growing faster than prices and mortgage rates 40 basis points below last year's level will help homebuyers better keep up, but not everyone is catching up to these shifting dynamics,” Hale said. “The typical seller asking price continues to rise 7% on a year-over-year basis, and as a result, an increasing share of sellers had to cut their listing price to attract a buyer."