News

Data That We Track, September 2016

Every month we look at data that helps drive future strategies for the regions and businesses we serve. This new blog series will provide you an opportunity to view this data to see how the counties in our territory fare, as well as an update on our activities and efforts put forth to help strengthen local economies.

New Data and New Information

Jobless rates rose nationally and in Michigan during the last reporting which was September, however the rates of our market area all continued to lower, save three counties that stayed the same. This most likely represents the end of summer seasonality showing up in the jobless statistics for our rural communities.

View the September 2016 Data Sheet Here (Adobe PDF File)

How NI Fared in the Third Quarter

We continue to track toward our best performance ever. It appears that our loan volume will be up around 25% over our best year, and our knowledge building reach will be up 33% over our best year.

Investing in businesses that occupy rural downtown spaces, both historic and new, is common to our portfolio. In the case of Jordan Stancil and the Rialto Theater, it was helping him invest in technology upgrades, while across the street, Paddle Hard Brewing was a start-up enterprise in downtown Grayling. What we learned long ago is that investment causes other investments, and the downtown area of Grayling seems to be transitioning positively. For many of us, downtown has a special meaning, born of experiences of shopping at department stores and unique smells and experiences, that was our personal downtown nostalgia. Downtown businesses are part of this market trend of supporting local, fresh, natural and authentic, and many downtowns appear to be on their way back.