The University of San Diego Burnham-Moores Center for Real Estate’s Index of Economic Indicators for San Diego County in May was released Thursday, and showed the first drop in eight months.
The index declined 0.3 percent, with five of the six sectors in negative territory, pulled down by decreases in help wanted advertising and local stock prices.
Professor Alan Gin said consumer confidence and the outlook for the national economy were also lower, while the number of residential housing units authorized by local governments were off slightly.
He said the only positive sector was employment.
May’s fall came after the index hit its highest level in almost 10 years in April.
“Economists usually look for three consecutive changes in a leading index to signal a potential turning point, so the one-month drop is not alarming at this moment,” Gin said.
“It does reflect the uneven performance of the index over the last year, with a slump last summer followed by streak of positive but not spectacular gains,” the professor said. “The outlook remains for positive growth for the rest of 2016 and possibly into the beginning of 2017. But the pace of growth is expected to slow, which has already been manifested in local job growth.”
The index stood at 140.4 in May, which despite the drop is still the second-highest reading since November 2006.
—City News Service