An Economic Dichotomy – Booming Businesses in a Pandemic

We live in a semi-cocoon here in East Tennessee.  The Covid-19 pandemic rages around us and we’ve had 815 confirmed cases with ‘only’ 3 deaths in Loudon County.  Not too bad when you consider that probably 8,000 plus folks who live just in our community are retired and fairly vulnerable.  Also consider that neither the state nor the county have mask mandates. Nearby Knox County does have a mask requirement…

Of course we all know what the pandemic has done to the economy!  Millions of people have lost their jobs.  Many businesses are closing forever.  Others are just scraping by… Food banks are overwhelmed, renters are in danger of eviction and people are behind in their mortgage payments.

And yet there is an economic boom of sorts here in our neighborhood!

I had “assumed” that with millions of people filing for unemployment and an economy in free-fall, the burgeoning spate of homebuilding in our ungated community would go into a quick downward spiral…

Apparently, I’m no economist!  This new home was just started across the street and about a block down from us in the last few weeks.  The foundation is in place as is an all too ubiquitous porta potty! 

One new house wouldn’t prove much… This lot was just cleared for a new home a week ago.  It’s on a street behind us at the back of a house just 2 lots up from our home.

Our street isn’t very long…perhaps 4 or 5 blocks one way and a short 2 blocks the other way.  The first photo shows the beginnings of another new build at the end of our street and the second photo is of a new house nearing completion just across the street from the new home start up!

If you still think that perhaps the previously pictured new homes near us were just a coincidence, here is another flock of homes at various stages of completion along an adjacent street in our neighborhood.

Here is one more home nearing completion.  One fact is obvious.  Home builders and construction crews in our area are not out of work and it appears that they won’t be anytime soon.

Just to finish our tour, these 4 other new homes are located on yet another street in our neighborhood.  Fact: All 14 homes shown above are located within no more than a half mile of our home…and most are within a quarter mile in actual distance.  We still have a patch of woods on one side of our house, its still wooded across the street from us and we have a tiny bit of woods right behind our home.

The main portion of our community stretches along 9.5 miles of Tellico Lake and adjacent property.  Another large section is located a few miles away in Monroe County.  New home construction is happening everywhere!  The last numbers I recall showed that over 180 homes were being built…

What factors figure into our continuing building boom?  Obviously some of the homes were committed to and funded before the economic downturn.  I can only guess that people who were contemplating retirement and who had the financial wherewithal to do so…just decided to call it quits and relocate somewhere where the environment was pleasant and the cost of living was low.

On the other hand…the business news today proves that I just don’t understand the economy!  To quote: “Housing starts in July rose 22.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of nearly 1.5 million.  Permits rose sharply for both single and multi-family dwellings”.

All of the home construction in our area got me thinking… I recalled driving past Tellico West and noting something of interest in this down economy.  This industrial park is managed by the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency.  Its home to several large companies and those companies employ roughly 3,000 employees when business is good

I remembered seeing a number of help wanted signs, and they’d been up for months.  We stopped by and Laurie snapped these photos… The first one is a Yamaha Jet Boats help wanted sign.  The second is a view of just a small part of the finished watercraft at the factory waiting to be delivered.

Master Craft’s boatbuilding operation is in the same industrial park along the shores of Tellico Lake.  They are hiring as well!  Mastercraft also had a 'now hiring' sign out by the entrance to the industrial park...but so did Randstad (a recruiting company), JTEKT (an automotive supplier) and DHL (a global logistics and shipping company).  The only shortage around here seems to be job applicants...

I didn’t see a help wanted sign for Sea Ray but I checked on-line and they are trying to fill positions as well.  This plant manufactures Sea Ray and Lund sports boats and sports cruisers. 

While driving through the area, we also noted a sign for Great Lakes Boat Tops…which is also located in the Tellico West Industrial Park.  They’re trying to fill a number of positions in their plant too!

Who can afford a boat in such an economic downturn?  Apparently those who are still working, who have the money and who are looking for something to do that is relatively safe in that families and friends can enjoy the outdoors and stay ‘socially distanced’.  With most types of travel off limits, boating is a booming business.

Other businesses are booming too!  Home renovation projects, either by professionals or as do it yourself projects include such items as pools, decks, home gyms, saunas, home offices and landscaping, are bucking the economic trends.  So is the recreational vehicle industry.  Dealers have consistently reported strong demand for rentals and sales of new and used RVs as families and would be travelers look for options that minimize their risk of catching Covid-19.  Other industries doing well include makers of cleaning/sanitizing products, video gaming, exercise equipment, streaming video services and of course, group communications services such as Stack and Zoom.

I’m guessing that once we get back to ‘normal’, whatever and whenever that is, there may be a lot of used boats and RVs available for very reasonable prices… Time will tell.

In the meantime…

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL FOOD BANK!

That’s all for now.  Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave