The Chicago Fed’s Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was –0.38 in March, down from +0.13 in February. The index averaged +0.55 over the past year, which is above its long-run average. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit’s economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city’s economic activity growing slower than tr... Read More

The Chicago Fed’s Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was +0.99 in December, up from –0.33 in November. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit’s economic activity growing faster than trend, while an index value less than zero points to the city’s economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete history of the index through December is shown below (chart... Read More

Some cities, such as Detroit, are still at the beginning stages of their turnaround efforts. In contrast, other cities, such as Baltimore, are decades into theirs—but still well short of a complete rebound. Baltimore, like many other industrial cities seeking to increase their social and economic appeal, has undertaken several major infrastructure projects over the past few decades. For i... Read More

The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was +1.51 in September, up from +0.44 in August. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend and a value less than zero points to the city's economic activity growing slower than trend. The complete history of the index through September is shown below (chart 1). ... Read More

The Chicago Fed's Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI) was -0.19 in June, which points to economic growth slightly below trend for the city of Detroit that month. Over the past year, the index has averaged +0.36, which is above its long-run average. An index value greater than zero points to the city of Detroit's economic activity growing faster than trend and a value less than zero points to t... Read More

Michigan's unemployment rate fell in 2017 to 4.6% for the eighth consecutive year since peaking at 13.7%1 in 2009. The drop from the peak-over 9 percentage points—is the largest recorded in any state during that time. The state's labor market has arguably strengthened each year of its economic recovery from the Great Recession. And the size of the labor force and labor force participation rate ha... Read More

In the spring of 2017, the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago published a Chicago Fed Letter article that introduced an index that was developed to track the economic activity in the city of Detroit. This new index was called the Detroit Economic Activity Index (DEAI), and it was also briefly discussed in an earlier Michigan Economy blog entry dated April 27, 2017. The DEAI uses 23 Detroit-specific ... Read More

In this blog entry, I look at whether targeted public investments in certain Detroit neighborhoods has helped produce higher homes values in those parts of the city. Before going over the results of such efforts, first let me explain why some have considered targeted investments to be a worthwhile approach to addressing some of the city’s problems. In 1950, Detroit’s population r... Read More

Since the early 1990s, the housing market in Wayne County, Michigan, whose county seat is Detroit, has experienced substantial price swings. Housing market volatility has varied by municipality (and by neighborhood within Detroit). Changes in the Wayne County housing market show us which areas have thrived and which have struggled in the past quarter century or so. In this blog post, we take ... Read More

In September 2017, Amazon announced its search for a second North American headquarters location. Ultimately, 238 North American metropolitan areas submitted bids within the six-week allotted period, including several in the Seventh District 1. In this blog, I examine the potential Seventh District contenders based on some important criteria relating to logistics, business environment, and la... Read More