[Sly Fox]

We all know it but its still strange to see the fishwrap admit it:

LU powers economy in Central Va.

By Bethany Fuller
bfuller@newsadvance.com
November 3, 2006

Lynchburg’s strong job market has shielded the area from the real estate slump affecting much of the country.

“Most everything in the Lynchburg area looks pretty good,” said Bill Mezger, chief economist for the Economic Information Services division of the Virginia Employment Commission. “Most of it has been in Lynchburg (city) as it has for several years. Most of the growth is in private education.”

Mezger said private colleges are now the dominant employer in the region.

The unemployment rate for the Lynchburg metropolitan area dropped from 3.4 percent in August to 3.1 percent in September. Mezger said the biggest change in September was schools coming back into session, particularly at the college/university level.

While Randolph-Macon Woman’s College, Sweet Briar College and Lynchburg College have all had modest growth in size, Liberty University’s students, staff and faculty have grown dramatically.

LU vice chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said college towns, such as Charlottesville, Roanoke and Blacksburg, have good economies.

“I think there are a lot of good things going on in Lynchburg,” he said.

Falwell said the university has hired 300 new employees a year for the past five years and currently enrolls about 10,000 undergraduates. But, he said, Lynchburg has always had a diverse economy, which wasn’t dependent on one particular industry. Mezger agreed.

“Lynchburg is showing 1.5 percent job growth in this month compared to a year ago,” Mezger said. “Much of this year, Lynchburg has been growing faster than the Roanoke area.”

In September, Lynchburg tied with the Roanoke area for the 47th lowest unemployment rate out of 367 metropolitan areas nationwide. Roanoke’s unemployment was 3.2 percent in 2005.

Lynchburg’s unemployment rate fell one percentage point, from 4.1 in September 2005 to 3.1 this September. According to the Virginia Employment Commission, about 1,000 fewer workers were counted as unemployed in September than there were a year ago.

The area’s rural location and strong job market are two factors in its favor, said Lawrence Yun, senior economist for the National Association of Realtors.

The pattern of home sales is dependent on job market conditions, Yun said.

“The Lynchburg job market is performing very well,” he said.

For the first time this year, the number of year-to-date closed home sales as of Sept. 30 declined, compared to the same period last year.

According to a survey from the Virginia Association of Realtors, the number of homes sold in September was down 0.3 percent for the year.

“Roanoke, Lynchburg, the southwest part of the state are going to do a lot better than Northern Virginia,” Yun said.

Northern Virginia’s year-to-date home sales are off by nearly 31 percent, while the state was down 19 percent.

Doris Brammer, president of the Lynchburg Association of Realtors, said Lynchburg doesn’t go to extremes like other metropolitan areas.

“You’re never going to see Lynchburg have the peaks and valleys other people have,” she said.

Brammer said Lynchburg had the second smallest change in the state, following New River Valley, which went up .29 percent.

“Nationwide we believe the slump will soon be coming to an end,” Yun said. “Lynchburg did not bear the brunt of the housing market slump, but will participate in the rebounding of the nationwide housing market.”

http://www.newsadvance.com/servlet/Sate ... 7966&path=

[A.G.]

Maybe Jerry does have the right to mark his turf with the clearcut on the wrong part of the mountain. I look forward to the day when Lynchburg becomes known as a college town. I'm also impressed that an article lauding LU was written by someone other than the "official" LU mouthpiece at the fishwrap (Ron Brown).

[badger74]

I pointed this out to the folks at Economy.com who had missed listing any of the colleges as major employers. I think people will start to get it now.

[Sly Fox]

And the factor many don't seem to grasp is that universities aren't generally affected much by recession. So colleges tend to help communities maintain more consistent resources.