A recent study shows there’s an uptick in economic growth in Oxford County and local experts have seen signs the economy is slowly on the rise.

New York-based SmartAsset studied Maine counties, measuring the change in the local gross domestic product. Managing Editor and Vice President of Content Strategy A.J. Smith said her company used figures from 2010 to 2012, because those were the latest ones available.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau County Business Patterns Survey, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey and Bloomberg were utilized. Four factors were used – business establishment growth, GDP growth, new building permits (residential) and municipal bond investment – and totaled to create a list.

Oxford County came in 10th in the state for GPD growth with $7 million. But it ranked eighth in the state for overall income and investment, Smith said. She said the latter includes all the ways investments can be made in a community, including opening a business, building more homes in the area, people spending more money in the local economy, developers coming in and seeing opportunity to buy land and property and government’s municipal bonds that invest in infrastructure.

“When it comes to GDP growth, we still have the overall economy growing by $7 million,” Smith said. “There were fewer businesses opening up, but there were businesses that were growing and bringing in some economic health to the area.”

New building permits for Oxford County between 2010 and 2012 came in at 3.7 per 1,000 homes, which she said is a positive sign. Glen Holmes, director of finance at Community Concepts Finance Corporation in Paris, said he’s been told by a number code enforcement officers that housing stock is up in Oxford County.

“They’re definitely seeing more building permit applications than they were five years ago,” Holmes said.

The county averaged $52 in municipal bonds per capita over five years. GDP growth index weighed in at 0.02 percent. Smith noted during this time, there was only 0.4 percent of new businesses being established across the United States.

Oxford Hills Chamber of Commerce Executive Director John Williams noted Oxford County came in last at No. 10 in the study. While he’d like to see a better number, there are some signs that things are improving economically in Western Maine, especially surrounding Oxford Casino on Route 26 in Oxford and the hotel being built across the highway.

“I am cautiously optimistic about the economy in the area,” Williams said. “Now that the Hampton Inn is under construction, we’re seeing a real uptick in restaurants and retail outfits, also creating more activity in developers in the area.”

He said the chamber has been contacted by a number of developers looking at the area surrounding the hotel. Officials of Hampton Inn want to have a restaurant next to the hotel and are interested in being involved in construction of the building.

“We feel it’s only a matter of time before some contracts are signed for some new business development that will go along with it,” Williams said.

Holmes agrees with the SmartAsset study. Calls that used to come every three months now ring in at least once a week for people looking for a place for their business – in all areas of the county.

“I think their study is correct,” he said. “I think things are better now than what they are looking at because . . . those numbers are old.”

Holmes’ organization is definitely doing more lending.

“Community Concepts Finance Corporation has made a strong effort to increase the loan volume,” he said. “We were able to do almost $2 million over the last 12 months and we’re looking to lend more than $3 million in the next 12 months.”

Both Holmes and Williams look to downtown Norway as an example of local economic growth. They agreed Western Maine Health’s new $8.2 million, 25,500-square-foot medical building on the site of the former C.B. Cummings & Sons dowel mill on Pikes Hill Road will be a catalyst for development, including more foot traffic through the Main Street corridor.

“I believe wholeheartedly it will continue to attract businesses in the downtown area,” Williams said.

He said other signs of economic progress in the area include a well-attended Oxford 250 race at the Oxford Plains Speedway at the end of August and manufactured homes businesses in the area indicating to Williams that business has increased over the summer.

To see the entire study, visit http://smartasset.com/investing/investment-calculator#us/incoming.

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