I'm not one to recycle my posts, but I wanted to check back in on the AP Economic Stress Index, to see whether things had improved at all. As a refresher, the Stress Index; "measures the relative impact of the recession and its recovery by integrating the cumulative effect of... unemployment, foreclosure, and bankruptcy." What is slick about the index is that it measures every county in the U.S.
In this update I found that my 'home' county, Contra Costa California, has actually gotten worse over the past 6 months. In my October 2009 post, Contra Costa registered 16.31 on the stress index (up significantly from the October 2007 reading of 7.44). For the March 2010 reading, Contra Costa's stress level has increased to 17.06. Interesting, because all signs point to a recovery, but it evidently hasn't really started yet..
Click Here For the AP Stress Index
In this update I found that my 'home' county, Contra Costa California, has actually gotten worse over the past 6 months. In my October 2009 post, Contra Costa registered 16.31 on the stress index (up significantly from the October 2007 reading of 7.44). For the March 2010 reading, Contra Costa's stress level has increased to 17.06. Interesting, because all signs point to a recovery, but it evidently hasn't really started yet..
The index has a "slider", which allows one to adjust the date from October 2007 to March 2010. Pretty amazing to watch the color (stress) change on a nationwide basis.
