IMPLAN Blog

The U.S. housing market is exhibiting signs of cooling, with the resulting slowdown extending well beyond real estate listings.

Recent data from Redfin shows that U.S. pending home sales fell 5.8% yearover yearduring the four weeks ending February 15, 2026, marking the largest decline in a year. At the same time, homes are taking longer to sell. Thetypical home now takes 67 days to go under contract, a full week longer than in 2025 and the slowest pace since early 2019.

These shifts are significant because housing transactions serve as major catalysts for economic spending. Each home sale initiates a cascade of economic activity, including mortgage financing, renovation work, furniture purchases, and retail spending.

IMPLAN was used to model how the recent slowdown in home sales translates into broader economic impacts across industries and communities.

For decades, U.S. economic growth has been predicated on the assumption that population increases drive greater demand. This foundational premise is now being challenged.

Recent U.S. Census Bureau data indicate a significant shift in the nation’s demographic trajectory. U.S. population growth declined from approximately 1.0% in 2024 to 0.5% in the twelve months ending June 30, 2025. This slowdown, driven by lower birth rates and reduced international migration, has produced immediate and quantifiable economic consequences.

A slower-growing population means a slower-growing customer base. In 2024, the U.S. added 3.2 million new residents. In 2025, that number dropped to 1.8 million, leaving a growth gap of roughly 1.4 million fewer people contributing to housing demand, retail spending, and service consumption.

IMPLAN was utilized to model the economic implications of this demographic slowdown by quantifying the forgone consumption associated with the 1.4 million 'missing' residents and the subsequent ripple effects.

Widespread winter drought across the United States has evolved from a climate concern into a significant input-cost risk for businesses, households, and local economies.

As of January 13, 2026, 42.55% of the Lower 48 states are classified as being in drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. When areas labeled “abnormally dry” are included, more than two-thirds of the country is experiencing some form of unusual winter dryness.

Winter is typically the period when snowpack and soil moisture replenish water storage systems that support spring and summer demand. When this replenishment does not occur, utilities encounter higher operating costs, water supplies become constrained, and water-intensive industries experience increased cost pressures that propagate through supply chains.

IMPLAN was used to model how sustained winter dryness could translate into economy-wide cost impacts through the water system.

For years, corporate Government Affairs teams have led policy conversations with a familiar set of numbers: how many people we employ, how much we’ve invested in facilities, how long we’ve operated in the state or district.

While those figures still matter, it’s becoming clearer and clearer that they rarely tell the whole story policymakers are seeking.

Today’s legislative environment is more crowded, more data-driven, and more skeptical than ever. Elected officials are assessing trade-offs across industries, regions, and constituencies. In that context, a single headcount number doesn’t fully explain a company’s role in the economy, or its relevance to the policy decision at hand.

That’s why many Government Affairs teams are shifting from “jobs-led” messaging to full economic contribution storytelling.

The expansion of the College Football Playoff (CFP) to a 12-team format represents a meaningful shift in where the economic benefits of college athletics are felt. For the first time, four first-round playoff games will be hosted on college campuses, bringing high-stakes postseason action directly into college towns that have historically been excluded from the financial upside of the bowl system.

Rather than concentrating spending in a small set of traditional bowl destinations, the new CFP model distributes visitor dollars across a broader range of regions. For host communities, this means a surge of out-of-town fans, sold-out hotels, packed restaurants, and increased retail and transportation spending, all tied to a single, nationally significant event.

The Trump Administration recently announced $12 billion in federal aid for U.S. farmers through the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program. These one-time bridge payments are designed to provide immediate financial support to producers facing ongoing market pressures, helping them sustain operations, pay their workforce, and stabilize local economic activity.

While these payments directly boost farmers’ bottom lines, their influence doesn’t end on the farm. Using IMPLAN, Education Services Economist Whitney McKinzie analyzed how these funds ripple through rural communities and the broader U.S. economy.

This year, new international student enrollment fell by more than 21,000 students, and the economic consequences are already evident.

New IMPLAN analysis reveals just how vital international students are to the economic health of communities across the United States. The economic footprint of these students extends far beyond tuition payments, driving billions in GDP, supporting tens of thousands of jobs, and sustaining key local industries.

We’re excited to share that our annual core data release is now live — and this year’s release brings meaningful improvements that help analysts better reflect real local economies, especially in fast-changing or highly specialized regions.

This year, our Data Team used robust data and powerful harmonization tools to deliver a high quality core dataset in record time, navigating changes in federal data availability with precision and ensuring your analyses stay on the cutting edge.

Here’s a quick look at what’s new and why it matters:

New IMPLAN analysis reveals the economic ripple effects of reduced soybean farming due to tariffs, and what a recovery could mean moving forward.

According to the Wall Street Journal, China purchased just over 200 million bushels of U.S. soybeans from January through August of this year. That’s an 80% drop from the nearly 1 billion bushels purchased during the same period last year. For an industry where China previously accounted for more than half of the $24.5 billion in U.S. soybean exports, the change represents an estimated $9.8 billion reduction in output.

But the economic impact doesn’t stop on the farm.

We’re excited to announce a major enhancement to IMPLAN Canada: Users can now model economic impacts at the sub-provincial level!

For the first time, IMPLAN users can explore the economies of Canada’s 76 Economic Regions (ERs), offering a new layer of regional precision and insight. Whether you’re analyzing regional investments, evaluating local industries, or assessing community-level impacts, this added granularity opens the door to deeper, more localized understanding of how economic activity flows across Canada.