Lake Forest Economic Summit - Part 1

Proving once again that Economic Development is the star gem in the Lake Forest jewelry box, more than 60 people attended the “Lake Forest Economic Summit” on Friday (March 6), including several Council (Gardner, Voigts, Hamilton, Robinson) and Commission (Verplanke, DeAlmeida, Herrin) members. The two hour session covered a variety of issues. In Part 1 I’ll cover some of the demographic data and in Part 2 tomorrow we’ll look at vacancy rates.

COMPARATIVE DATA

Looking at the 2015 South Orange County Economic Report here are some comparisons between Lake Forest and our immediate neighbors (Mission Viejo, Laguna Hills, RSM, Aliso Viejo, Laguna Niguel)

• · Average age (under 37) is younger than everyone else
• · Median household income ($93,127) is average
• · Percent White is lowest (70%)
• · Percent Hispanic (25%) is highest
• · Percent with Graduate Degree (13%) is lowest
• · Median Home Value ($505,600) is low
• · Percent unemployed (3%) is average
• · Population (77,264) is second highest
• · Population density (4315 per square mile) is average
• · Workers per person (481 per 1000) is highest
• · Small businesses per person (1 for every 19) is average

In South Orange County as a whole, the trends indicate

• · Average age is getting older
• · Percent of school children is declining
• · Percent of young adults (20-34) is increasing
• · Percent Whites is declining
• · Percent Hispanics is increasing
• · Real estate jobs are increasing
• · Child care and family care jobs are decreasing
• · Services for the elderly are increasing
• · Restaurants are increasing
• · Discount stores are decreasing

CITIES THAT STAND OUT

Here are the cities that stood out -

• · Mission Viejo (93,305) has most people
• · Laguna Niguel has oldest average age (42.8)
• · Laguna Niguel has highest percent White (80%)
• · Lake Forest has highest percent Hispanic (25%)
• · Aliso Viejo has highest percent with B.A. or higher (55%)
• · Laguna Niguel has highest percent with M.A. or higher (20%)
• · Laguna Niguel has highest median home value ($679,500)
• · Aliso Viejo has lowest unemployment (2.3%)
• · Mission Viejo has largest geographic size (17.5 square miles)
• · Aliso Viejo has highest density (6400 people per square mile)
• · Lake Forest has most workers on a population basis (481 workers for every 1,000 residents)
• · Laguna Hills has most small businesses on a population basis (1 business for every 10 people)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.

Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 2 pm to 5 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a town hall meeting every moth. The next meeting will be March 14 from 2 to 4 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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