By Julie Hein, General Manager
Well, another mention by the national media about how cool we are around here. Yeah, we know it's a great place to live. This time it's the Wall Street Journal. I'd link you to the article, but it's only for their subscribers. The title is "Need a Loan? Where Do You Live?" if you are a subscriber and want to find it. Or the Cedar Rapids Metro Economic Alliance has it too.
I'll give you the Cliff Notes version here. In Cedar Rapids, the 177th largest metropolitan area in the U.S., banks make 11% more consumer loans in 2011 than they did in 2006. Q4 alone was 52% hirgher than the same period in 2006.
We didn't have a huge housing bubble to drop from. We don't have a lot of fluctuation in any of our markets--housing, employment, whatever. Auto loans and mortgages are up 38% and 18% respectively, the largest increases in the country. Low interest rates even with below average credit scores--also a bunch of those around here. 2.9% interest on car loans? We got that. Mortgages without closing costs or origination fees? Those too! Our deliquency rates are low.
Quoting Eliot Keller, "Yay. I love us." We love the Corridor!
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