TWIN FALLS — It has been a rollercoaster of a year for the economy of south-central Idaho.
The housing market was described as a “perfect storm” by real estate agents, assessors and builders. Restaurants struggled to find employees. And supply chain shortages affected every industry.
“All of these challenges, I wish we had a silver bullet to fix them all, but they all seem to be intertwined,” Shawn Barigar, president of the Twin Falls Chamber of Commerce, said.
Some of these challenges might stick around into the new year and others are showing signs of reprieve, Barigar said. The chamber expects tourism to pick up in 2022, as international travel becomes an option again.
The chamber is anticipating seeing more international travelers from Asia coming on tour buses on their way to Yellowstone.
The housing market on the other hand might face the same problems as this year.
“Looks like another wild ride for this coming year,” said Stan Tobiason, owner of Super Realty.
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In May, Twin Falls housing prices had increased 29.4% since 2020. The median price for a single-family home reached $320,000.
During September and October, things started to look up for the first time in 14 months, Tobiason said.
“It was so fun to have good news for shoppers and tell them right out of the gate they didn’t have to try seven to eight times,” he said.
That brief reprieve didn’t last long.
In November homes started selling instantly, the inventory began to dwindle and sellers started receiving multiple offers again.
Realtor.com listed Salt Lake City and Boise as the top two housing markets positioned for growth in 2022. With Twin Falls being in the middle, Tobiason expects high growth here, too.
Supply shortages were another factor plaguing the housing industry. During the summer, lumber was a limiting factor and now it’s something else.
“Garage doors are on back order for many months,” he said. “There’s always some missing component.”
The Chamber of Commerce had firsthand experience with shipping delays in 2021.
In September of 2020, they ordered bicycles to rent out at the visitor center.
“We finally received those in September of 2021, so it took 12 months to get bicycles that were available,” Barigar said.
The automotive industry was hit particularly hard by shipping delays and supply chain shortages, he said.
Christian Robinson, general sales manager for Twin Falls Subaru, said new car production volume has been down 30% recently.
“I ordered a car for a customer the other day and it won’t be here till May,” Robinson said.
The world is still dealing with a semiconductor chip shortage that will most likely continue into 2022, he said. Multiple factors, including the pandemic, led to a lack of inventory.
The chips used in automobiles are the same ones in digital devices, such as TVs and video game systems. Because of work from home and quarantines, more people were buying technology instead of a new vehicle, he said.
Purchasing used vehicles helped the dealership keep a strong supply of options for customers, he said.
“As you drive around town, some lots look like the dealership is out of business,” Robinson said.
Labor shortages were another challenge facing the automotive industry. Some delays in inventory can be traced back to railyards not having enough staff to get cars off trains.
It felt like almost every business in Twin Falls was hiring this year, Barigar said.
“You couldn’t drive down Blue Lakes without seeing help wanted signs at every shop along the way and that’s continuing, exacerbated by the housing challenges,” he said.
Although south-central Idaho’s unemployment rate continued to fall, local staffing agencies struggled to find workers to fill postings.
The unemployment rate in Twin Falls County was estimated to be 2.1% in November. This is a seasonally adjusted number by the Idaho Department of Labor Statistics.
“Today, if I had the people, I could fill about 180 openings and that is just in the Magic Valley,” Brenda Hedrick, branch manager for Ascend Staffing told the Times-News in September.
Hedrick has worked in staffing for almost three decades and had never seen anything like it before. More employees started to apply in the fall however she worried that would change if COVID cases continued to rise.
To survive, some restaurants chose to reduce hours.
The Cove of Twin Falls, Scooter’s Chillin’-N-Grillin’ and others posted on Facebook in August that long hours were draining their staff.
Debra Urrutia, owner of The Cove, said staffing shortages felt worse than COVID closures in 2020.
Telling customers as they enter that the wait time is going to be more than an hour is tough on a business’s reputation, Urrutia told the Times-News previously. Her small staff was working up to 12-hour shifts to cover missing employees.
In November, for the first time since the pandemic started, the unemployment rate in south-central Idaho fell below its pre-pandemic level, according to the Idaho Department of Labor Statistics.
“There is growing unease due to the rise in job separations, housing costs, and inflationary pressure, all of which threaten to reverse much of this progress,” said the Idaho Department of Labor Statistics in a press release. “As we prepare to enter 2022, Idaho’s labor market recovery pace provides a sense that much of the damage caused by the pandemic will be recovered.”
Health care and social assistance, retail trade and manufacturing had the highest hiring difficulties, according to the press release.
Barigar said despite all the challenges, 2021 turned out to be a good year. South-central Idaho saw robust growth and new opportunities.
“Our community has rallied together in the past and we have a strong regional presence and a good stable economic base, particularly in agriculture,” he said. “I think God willing there is snow in the mountains and water in the spring and we’re all in good shape for the new year.”
