A year marked by high demand, supply constraints, and mercurial commodities pricing likely will lead to continued volatility for at least the first half of 2021, some wood products industry observers say. Joel White, executive officer of the Spokane Home...
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Real estate in Spokane stayed surprisingly strong in most sectors through the pandemic, say industry observers here, with home sales and commercial real estate investment, particularly in industrial space, seeing strong growth. Rob Higgins, executive ...
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If a few positive steps are taken in 2021, the Inland Northwest could regain all of the jobs it lost this year, Spokane-area economists say. Such a recovery might not be V-shaped, but it would be a dramatic comeback, as Avista chief economist Grant ...
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Experts here say that while financial institutions have seen increases in loans and deposits in 2020, they could feel the squeeze of low interest rates in 2021. In March, the U.S. Federal Reserve lowered the federal fund rate—the benchmark interest ...
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The tourism industry here expects to see some signs of recovery in 2021 from the stifling effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, but likely not until midyear. Meg Winchester, president and CEO of Visit Spokane, says that by all accounts, 2020 was shaping up ...
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The mining industry in the Inland Northwest and throughout the U.S. shares some guarded optimism looking forward to 2021 and the incoming presidential administration, says Mark Compton, executive director of the Spokane-based American Exploration & Mining...
Full StoryWhile many of 2020’s economic challenges due to COVID-19 will carry into next year, the most recent forecast for the state’s retail industry shows more promise than first expected. At press time, the Washington state Department of Revenue’s most ...
Full StoryWhile COVID-19 may continue to wreak havoc on certain sectors of the economy next year, observers involved in two of the state’s five largest agricultural commodities predict they won’t be among them. Officials with the Washington Grain Commission an...
Full StoryNorth Idaho wasn’t exempted from the pandemic-induced economic crisis of 2020, but the entire state may be recovering slightly faster than most of the country, contends Sam Wolkenhauer, Post Falls-based labor economist for the Idaho Department of Labor....
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MultiCare Health System is expanding its cardiac rehabilitation services with the opening of a new Pulse Heart Institute center in Spokane Valley. Kevin Maloney, MultiCare’s Inland Northwest media relations manager, says the new Pulse center will ...
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