Search Results
Discussion Paper
High and Dry: Banking Deserts Increased in the Fifth District During the Pandemic
The number of U.S. bank branches has been shrinking for years, but the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the rate of closures. After the Riegle-Neal Interstate Banking and Branching Efficiency Act of 1994 allowed banks to open branches across state lines, branch networks spread steadily across the country. That expansion continued until the Great Recession, after which banks moved from growing their physical footprints to increasing their automated services, like ATMs and online banking.
Journal Article
At the Richmond Fed: Collaborating to Improve Rural Access to Capital
Small towns and rural communities play a key role in the Fifth District's economy. Not only do they make up nearly one-quarter of the region, they also have important economic ties to neighboring cities and counties.That's why the Richmond Fed is addressing the economic health of rural areas as part of its broader mission of strengthening the economy. Working with partners on the local, regional, and national levels, the Bank's Community Development team recently launched the Rural Investment Collaborative to increase economic investment in small towns and rural communities throughout the ...
Journal Article
Semiconductor Industrial Policy and the Fifth District
Chatham County, N.C., is a long way from Silicon Valley. Around 76,000 residents live here among the rolling hills of the Piedmont region, nestled between the Atlantic Plain and the Appalachian Mountains. Farming and mining have been the primary industries for generations. The county is about 2,700 miles away from Silicon Valley, the Bay Area region widely acknowledged as the world's semiconductor innovation hub for over half a century. But despite these differences in geography and reputation, in September 2022, Wolfspeed, a firm originally founded in North Carolina in 1987 as a developer ...
Journal Article
District Digest: Community Colleges as Anchor Institutions in Rural Areas
The Fifth Federal Reserve District — comprising Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, most of West Virginia, and Washington, D.C. — is home to 122 public two-year institutions that have a wide range of both traditional academic and technical programs. More than half of these community colleges are located in rural counties. The 66 rural community colleges, like the private and public four-year institutions of higher education in rural areas, play an anchor institution role in their communities. But this role is not always accounted for in the formulas that federal, state, ...
Discussion Paper
Inflation Expectations of Fifth District Firms
In early 2021, inflation in the U.S. began to climb, with the Consumer Price Index (CPI) peaking at 9 percent on a year-over-year basis in 2022. Since then, inflation has come down considerably. In July 2021, we started to monitor the inflation expectations of respondents to our Fifth District business surveys. We saw expectations rise along with inflation and then start to fall.In the most recent April survey, we find that most firms are following inflation. Firms' expectations for CPI growth in the next year and the next five years have increased again to levels similar to October 2023. ...
Discussion Paper
Firms' Employment and Wage Outlook Going Into 2025
Every November, the Richmond Fed asks businesses a series of questions about their expectations for hiring, wage adjustments, and other employment-related topics. This year, in addition to the usual set of questions, we asked firms if they have reduced the size of their workforce over the past three months and what workforce decisions they would make if business conditions deteriorated in the next six months.Consistent with past results, most responding businesses expect to maintain or increase employee headcount over the next 12 months. However, there were some shifts in responses compared ...
Journal Article
Upfront: New from the Richmond Fed’s Regional Matters blog
Roll up of several Regional Matters Blog Posts
Journal Article
Public Transit Rides Out the Pandemic Storm
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically reduced transit ridership across the country. Operators across the Fifth District are still figuring out how to adapt.
Journal Article
At the Richmond Fed: Community Conversations
When Tom Barkin became president of the Richmond Fed in 2018, he made it his goal to spend time in every part of the Fifth District to stay well-informed about its communities. (See "Learning From Our District,") One of the ways the Richmond Fed's research department supports this goal is through an event series known as Community Conversations. These are one- or two-day road trips to visit with business and community leaders and learn about an area's challenges and successes.
Discussion Paper
Recent Trends in Fifth District Housing Market Indicators
There is evidence that the tight housing markets of the past few years are starting to loosen, with increased supply and falling prices. However, many Americans still struggle to buy a home. Between the fall of 2020 and the summer of 2022, home price growth accelerated in the United States and in all Fifth District states after being relatively steady for a decade. Using the CoreLogic Home Price Index, price increases were most dramatic in North Carolina and South Carolina, where year-over-year increases reached historic highs of 25 percent. While price increases remain high relative to the ...