28 March 2021 - Keith Lawrence (Messenger-Inquirer)
The U.S. Census Bureau says the number of apartment units built in 2019 was roughly the same as the year before.
But the number dropped by 15,000 from 2017, when 294,800 were built.
Nationally, the report said, the median monthly rent in 2019 was $1,653.
That was about $100 higher than the median monthly rent of $1,519 in 2015.
• Speaking of apartments, the price tag on that Chandler Park sale was $35.4 million, according to a deed filed in the Daviess County Clerk’s office.
DLP Real Estate Capital of St. Augustine, Florida, bought the 560 units to create its first presence in Kentucky.
The property was assessed for tax purposes at $23.4 million.
• Numbers for 2020 aren’t in yet.
But the Census Bureau said last week that homeownership in the United States peaked at 66% to 67% between 2005 and 2009.
The Great Recession hit in 2008 and home ownership dropped.
It had recovered to 64.1% in 2019, the report said.
• The Kentucky Center for Statistics says the state unemployment rate in February was 5.2%.
That was down 0.1 percentage points from January and up from 4.2% from the previous February.
The report said the state’s labor force — 1.99 million — was up 3,742 from January.
Mike Clark, director of the University of Kentucky’s Center for Business and Economic Research, said, “Over the past two months, both the number of people in the labor force and the number people employed have improved. However, workers are finding jobs more quickly than they are returning to the labor force, which lowers Kentucky’s unemployment rate.”