Total nonagricultural employment in the Great Plains increased by an average of 1.1 percent for the 12 months ending March 2001. An average of 6.5 million people were employed in nonagricultural jobs during this period. The unemployment rate in the region as of March 2001 was 3.3 percent. Nebraska was the only State in the region that had an increase in manufacturing employment for this period.

In the first 3 months of 2001, residential building permits were issued for 13,139 units in the Great Plains, a 9-percent decline compared with the first quarter of 2000. Single-family activity during this quarter totaled 8,819 homes, a 12-percent decline. Multifamily building permit activity was down less than 3 percent as a result of a large increase in activity in the Kansas City metropolitan area. In the first quarter of 2001, permits were issued for more than 2,500 multifamily units (70 percent of the total multifamily activity) in the Great Plains region.

The annual rate of existing home sales in the Great Plains totaled 259,200 homes, down 6 percent as of the fourth quarter of 2000, compared with fourth quarter of 1999. In metropolitan areas of the Great Plains, the average sales price of an existing home ranged from $80,600 in the Waterloo-Cedar Falls area to $129,000 in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Between 1998 and 2000, the average sales price for an existing home sold in the Omaha metropolitan area increased by $15,900 to $117,600, a 16-percent gain.

Spotlight on Des Moines, Iowa

The Des Moines metropolitan area is beginning its largest construction boom in the past 20 years. More than $1.5 billion of construction is under way or is planned for the near future. The extension of Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway through the southern portion of the central business district and the rebuilding of Interstate Highway 235 through the center of Des Moines will cost an estimated $550 million. Allied Insurance will spend $137 million to build a new 486,000-square-foot office building for 1,250 employees; construction is to be completed by 2002. Construction will soon begin on the new $201 million Iowa Events Center, which will include a 16,000-seat arena and a 100,000-square-foot exhibition hall. It will be located adjacent to Veterans Memorial Auditorium (which also will be renovated). Wells Fargo Financial plans to add a nine-story, 336,000-square-foot addition to its corporate headquarters. The $70 million addition is scheduled for completion in late 2002 or early 2003. The Iowa Justice Building, the new home for the Iowa Supreme Court and the Iowa Court of Appeals, is under construction and scheduled for completion by late 2002. The 123,000-square-foot building is anticipated to cost $30 million.

Two major housing developments are planned for downtown Des Moines. Riverpoint West is a 140-acre tract slightly south of the proposed Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway extension; the developer proposes as many as 2,000 housing units along with commercial offices, parking, and green space. Court Avenue has plans to develop 110 apartments and 40 condominiums to complement the recently completed Brown Camp Lofts. The total development plan for Court Avenue is to have 1,000 apartments to complement the Court Avenue Station, a $60 million, 180,000-square-foot entertainment complex to be constructed at Fifth and Court.

As of March 2001, nonagricultural wage and salary employment totaled 286,200 jobs in the Des Moines metropolitan area, an increase of less than 1 percent over the preceding 12 months. The unemployment rate for the metropolitan area was 2.7 percent in March 2001, up slightly from the same time in 2000. From 1998 through 2000, employment in transportation, communication, and public utilities demonstrated the most vigorous growth, going from an annual average of 13,200 jobs to 15,500, a 17-percent increase. Services grew from 75,200 to 82,500 jobs, a 10-percent increase.

During the 1990s, building permits were issued for an average of 3,120 residential units annually in the Des Moines metropolitan area. Single-family homes averaged 2,288 units, while multifamily homes averaged 832 units. In 2000, building permits were issued for 2,366 single-family homes and 569 multifamily units.

According to the Des Moines Area Association of REALTORS^®, there were 8,061 existing home sales in 1998 and 8,173 existing home sales in 1999. For 2000, home sales were down 5 percent to 7,759; however, the average price rose 7 percent to $135,975.

Since 1997, multifamily construction activity has averaged 530 units annually. As a result the market has become relatively tight. The overall apartment vacancy rate in the metropolitan area as of December 2000 was estimated at approximately 5 percent. According to the Carlson McClure and Associates, Inc., Metro Des Moines Apartment Surveys, the average contract rent for a two-bedroom unit was $610 for December 2000.