Tag: economic data

Marnie Werner, VP Research Whitney Oachs, Research Associate Kelly Asche, Research Associate Two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, there has still been little research on the impact of the coronavirus on rural communities or the accompanying public health and economic measures taken to control its spread. In Minnesota, like the rest of the nation, the ...

By Phil Jensen Job vacancies in Greater Minnesota continue to rise, and at a faster rate than in the seven-county metropolitan area. Attracting workers to more rural parts of the state is a complex problem, but housing plays a major role. Encouraging workers to relocate to Greater Minnesota depends on the availability of housing. That ...

By Phil Jensen Owning a home outright, or without a mortgage, can relieve strain on a household budget. Households without a monthly housing payment can achieve a higher standard of living with the same earnings, or can get by more easily with lower incomes. For these reasons, outright homeownership can especially impact households with smaller ...

  Marnie Werner, VP, Research Two years ago last week, I sat glued to my TV watching the governor and his cabinet as they announced our first covid lockdown. I sat there wondering how this was going to play out, who would get sick, who wouldn’t make it through to the other end. Sitting in ...

Marnie Werner, VP Research Click here for a printable version of this report. Between 2000 and 2015, the price of farmland in the United States climbed to record levels, driven first by high farm income derived from high demand for corn for use in biofuels,[1] then by high demand for any kind of reliable investment ...

Online sales have permeated everyday life and their impacts stretch beyond convenience of shopping. Local leaders see the evidence every day in their communities: more and more delivery trucks going down their roads, stopping at their neighbors’ or their own houses, dropping off products that were once maybe purchased in their own or a nearby ...

Now that we are beginning to exit the pandemic (hopefully), the data from the previous year and a half are being released. In this episode, Marnie Werner and Kelly Asche discuss what they’ve been seeing in the data. And although the illness and deaths associated with COVID-19 hit hard in our rural areas, some of ...

On this episode, Marnie Werner discusses her newest research report coming out in February on the rising values of agriculture lands and the rising property taxes associated with these values. We discuss the disconnect between the value of ag land and farm profitability, the increasing role investors and non-farmers are having on the issue, and ...

by Marnie Werner, VP Research & Operations Between 2000 and 2015, the price of farmland went on a tear. Prices climbed to levels unseen before, making people nervous. Now, after a respite between 2015 and 2020 where prices stayed fairly level, the farmland market is heating up again. These record prices have implications not just ...