Windsor Economy Red Hot

[Canadian Visitor]

In what I can only assume is also good news on the U.S. side of the border [[for Detroit).....

Windsor's economy is red hot with the April unemployment rate coming in at 4.9%.

http://windsorite.ca/2017/05/windsor...down-in-april/

The overall numbers for Ontario are the best in 16 years, at 5.8%

[313WX]

Unemployment is an extremely flawed measure of the health of the economy.

For those who don't have a Mechanical Engineering degree from MSU / UofM and connections in Engineering at the Big 3 automakers, it's still nearly impossible to find a permanent, decent-paying job in Michigan.

The below articles does a good job of going into detail about this:

Young talent continues to flee Michigan


http://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/...s_to_flee.html

Low jobless rate, so where are the jobs?


http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...ment/81598154/

[O3H]

I see an awful lot of ONTARIO license plates at Sams club in Madison Heights, Michigan every week when I get my household goods. That's a solid 20 mile trip [[one way), with border crossing fees, plus cost of gas.

[401don]

I see an awful lot of ONTARIO license plates at Sams club in Madison Heights, Michigan every week when I get my household goods. That's a solid 20 mile trip [[one way), with border crossing fees, plus cost of gas.

Not to mention an extra 30% exchange rate.

[davewindsor]

I see an awful lot of ONTARIO license plates at Sams club in Madison Heights, Michigan every week when I get my household goods. That's a solid 20 mile trip [[one way), with border crossing fees, plus cost of gas.

I don't know if they're shopping there for food as I haven't seen a lot of food cheaper in the US, except for milk and eggs and a few other things like spirits. If someone said that Windsor was the booze drinking capital of Canada, I wouldn't take offense--sadly, it's so true.

Electronics certainly is cheaper. With eco fees, I paid a ridiculous 25% sales tax on a flat screen TV in Windsor. Even the base price is a lot less. In some cases, Windsorites are paying half of what it would cost in Windsor with the exchange. So, if they're out buying electronics, tires or spirits, it would make sense for a lot of Ontarians to flock to Sam's Club.

There's also a lot of people living in Windsor commuting to Metro Detroit, so the border crossing fees are just an afterthought.

[masterblaster]

In what I can only assume is also good news on the U.S. side of the border [[for Detroit).....

Windsor's economy is red hot with the April unemployment rate coming in at 4.9%.

http://windsorite.ca/2017/05/windsor...down-in-april/

The overall numbers for Ontario are the best in 16 years, at 5.8%

Questions:

What exactly is driving Windsor's Economy?

Who are the biggest employers in the area?

Have any new employers moved to Windsor from other cities or provinces to bring new jobs to Windsor/Essex?

Has the red-hot economy led to increased development in downtown Windsor?

[Canadian Visitor]

Questions:

What exactly is driving Windsor's Economy?

Who are the biggest employers in the area?

Have any new employers moved to Windsor from other cities or provinces to bring new jobs to Windsor/Essex?

Has the red-hot economy led to increased development in downtown Windsor?

I would have to say its still the auto industry above all else.

Fiat Chrysler directly added about 1,000 jobs last year; Ford is in the process of adding 500 more.

Fiat is likely the largest private employer, I think w/over 6,000.

When the OEMs are firing on all cylinders, of course there are may spinoffs in the parts sector as well.

There has been other hiring, home-building is up, and there's some growth at the university.

I expect the next big surge to be for the Bridge.

***

I don't think there's been much spin-off in DT thus far.

It is showing some mild recovery, driven, I suspect, by the decision to open a satellite campus for the University and add residences for both UW and St. Clair College in DT.

Council has waived development fees DT, that may help, we'll have to see.

[Embee]

It's not just the unemployment rate that's way down....housing prices all across the city are up 20% just in the past year. There are bidding wars everywhere with some homes selling tens of thousands of dollars over asking price and most homes are being sold within one week. All of the long time local realtors say they've never seen anything like this before. There are help wanted signs all over the city too [[an oddity for Windsor).

The Conference Board of Canada last week said they expect Windsor to have the 2nd fastest economic growth of any city in Canada this year [[after Toronto).

Here's an article from today about how the strong economy is leading to infill development in the core:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...nomy-1.4116745

[DTWflyer]

To what extent is Windsor growth being fueled by people fleeing the high cost of living in the GTA? Are people choosing Windsor over Toronto these days because of the insane housing costs?

[401don]

[QUOTE=DTWflyer;525442]To what extent is Windsor growth being fueled by people fleeing the high cost of living in the GTA? Are people choosing Windsor over Toronto these days because of the insane housing costs?[/QUOT

The jobs are in the GTA, young people want to be downtown and all the immigrants fueling the pop. growth want to be in the GTA so it doesn't appear anything will change that anytime soon. There are retirees cashing in on their houses and moving out but every small town and city in Ontario is going after them. I don't think Windsor is getting any more of them than other locations.

[O3H]

Windsor is the Florida of the Ontario Province :-)