17 Things Economic Developers Need to Know This Week
The stories Dane thinks you need to see. September 11, 2025 edition.
Welcome to this week's issue of What Economic Developers Need to Know This Week, where we explore the evolving dynamics of our economy.
This week we have 17 tools, stories, graphics, charts and videos that I think you'll find informative, useful, inspiring, and perhaps even humorous. Some are economic development related directly, and some only indirectly. 🤔
If you're wondering what to do with the info in this newsletter, send something to your board members. It will make you look good!
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1) From Misty Mayo, President & CEO DevelopAbilene: Life as an Economic Developer: The Mini Rules 🎪
1️⃣ Juggle it all – 🔥 plates, 🪚 chainsaws, 🎱 bowling balls.
2️⃣ Balance on a 🎯 tightrope while smiling through it.
3️⃣ Deliver results… only to watch others take the bow 👏.
2) Thomas Cox: The Two-Speed Economy: An Economic Developer's Guide to the Boomtowns and Bad News.
"The disconnect we feel is a product of four fundamental truths of our profession today: the long time lag of our projects means our announcements reflect a past reality; our reliance on nominal 'gross' metrics for jobs and investment can mask a decline in 'real' value and affordability; our official definition of success has not kept pace with our communities' evolving values; and our biggest wins often carry a steep, unacknowledged price tag in the form of displacement and a diminished quality of life."
The U.S. Small Business Administration has unveiled financing tool for America's small manufacturers with the 7(a) Manufacturer's Access to Revolving Credit (MARC) Loan Program.
With 98% of U.S. manufacturers classified as small businesses, MARC loans are designed to expand access to flexible working capital, offering both revolving credit lines and term loans to cover everything from inventory purchases to new projects. Unlike traditional loan structures, MARC aims to minimize red tape and provide lenders with greater flexibility, making it easier for manufacturers to scale, add jobs, and reshore production.
For economic developers, this program adds a powerful new lever to support local manufacturers, complementing the SBA's 7(a) and 504 programs and strengthening industrial competitiveness at the community level.
4) U.S. apartment construction in 2025: More than 50% of this year's new apartment developments are concentrated in the South.
5) Economic Development and Developers in the News # 212 - Econ dev news from 108 economic development executives and organizations in 33 states.
6) Podcast 189: How North Dakota Gets Deals Done with Rich Garman - "Big Projects in a Small Pond"
7) 30 New Economic Development Jobs This Week - From $31,000 – $259,000.
8) 25 Things Economic Developers Need to Know This Week - The stories Dane thinks you need to see. September 4, 2025 edition.
9) (Dane's self promo, because huge new updates are coming this month) Over the last couple of years I have been building something I wish I had when I was an economic developer. It is called Sitehunt, and it is a modern site-selection platform designed to take the pain out of property search, data enrichment, and RFI responses. Instead of juggling spreadsheets, calling around for missing details, and cobbling together maps, Sitehunt brings everything into one simple and intuitive system.
Here is the magic: Sitehunt automatically enriches property data so that even the most barebones listing becomes a complete and investment-ready site profile. Utilities, infrastructure, zoning, incentives, workforce data, and much more are filled in. When it is time to share, the platform generates polished reports and proposals that make your community shine without spending hours formatting PowerPoints or PDFs.
It is also built for collaboration. Whether you are working with brokers, city staff, or regional partners, everyone can contribute and keep listings current. And when that dreaded RFI lands in your inbox, you can upload it into Sitehunt, and the system extracts the requirements, scores your sites, and helps you respond in hours instead of weeks.
I built Sitehunt because I know the grind and I wanted something better. Communities already using it are saving time, putting their sites in the best possible light, and getting ahead of the competition. If that sounds like something you need, check it out at sitehunt.io and book a demo.
10) The housing shortage, and as percent of housing stock:
11) Property taxes in absolute dollar terms:
And property taxes in as a percentage of home prices:
12) (Blame Prop 13) Property tax, at the parcel level, in California, is not the bestest:
13) Average teacher salary, by state:
14) Even as the American fertility rate dropped to 1.6 births per woman last year, the lowest on record, and falling below the generally accepted replacement rate of 2.1, the ideal family in the collective American consciousness has still risen modestly from 2.4 in the late 1990s:
The data suggests that the nation’s falling fertility rate has more to do with practical issues that would-be parents face, rather than shifting attitudes towards having children or the traditional family unit.
15) Minimalist tattoo designs are all the rage: I missed (or never understood) the tattoo-bus, but it appears that smaller, daintier designs are rising in popularity versus larger, more intricate designs:
16) Last year, Dr Pepper and Sprite overtook Pepsi in the American soft drinks rankings with an 8.7% and 8.03% chunk of the industry by case sales, respectively. Pepsi had 7.97%, marking its fourth consecutive year of slumping market share:
17) I'll be speaking this October at the Utility Economic Development Association's Fall Forum in Traverse City, Michigan. Register here.
