The Northwest Multiple Listings Service breaks down Pierce County into more than 100 neighborhoods and then groups those into 17 areas including Central Tacoma, North Tacoma, Gig Harbor, Lakewood and Brown's Point.

Here's a look at the median price of homes and condos sold in April by area and the percentage change when compared to the median home price a year ago.

Areas that had less than 10 homes sold -- Roy/McKenna/Harts Lake and Anderson Island -- are not included in the chart.

The median home price for the county was $225,000 last month. That represents a 14.5 percent decrease from the April 2008.

If you're between 16 and 24, and looking for work, then Tacoma Goodwill, The Business Connection and WorkSource Pierce want to help.

The three agencies will host a "Just For Youth" job fair tomorrow, May 7, in Building 19 at Clover Park Technical College, 4500 Steilacoom Blvd.

The fair runs from 3:30-5:30 p.m. and admission is free. Bring your resume and wear "business attire."

Employers scheduled to attend include: AAFES, Best Buy, Old Navy, K-Mart, Aflac, U.S. Army, Social Security Administration, LESA, Pierce County Sheriffs Department, State Farm Insurance, Right at Home, REACH, The Home Depot, CDS and Macy’s.

For information, call Diana Small, 253-219-4606.

Port of Tacoma Commissioner Connie Bacon announced this week that she will run again for her seat. Bacon has served three terms as a port commissioner.

The five-person port commission has three seats up for election this year. The spots now held by commissioners Dick Marzano and Ted Bottiger are also up for election.

Marzano and Bottiger have not yet announced whether they plan to run again.

"The Port of Tacoma has worked hard to earn its’ reputation as the ‘economic engine’ of Pierce County," Bacon said in a news release.

"I want to continue my efforts to seek new ways to attract diverse business opportunities for the Port while focusing my work to develop sound fiscal policies that provide oversight of every aspect of the Port operation," she said.

Bacon has been on the commission 11 years. Bacon said she's determined to keep the tax rate steady and noted that this year the port reduced the rate slightly.

She supports conservative financial policies so that "the Port of Tacoma is in a strong position to weather the current economic crisis," she said.

Bacon, 76, lives in Lakewood.

SeaTac's Alaska Airlines announced major changes to its route structure today adding Houston and Atlanta to its timetable and doubling the number daily Seattle-Honolulu nonstops to two.

Alaska also announced it will begin service from Oakland to Maui and the island of Hawaii beginning in November.

The airline also advanced the startup of its Portland-Maui service from a previously planned Aug. 7 to July 3.

"Hawaii has become a major market for Alaska Airlines in just a short time thanks to the loyalty of our customers and great service provided by our employees," said Alaska marketing vice president, Steve Jarvis.

The airline now has 59 weekly flights to Hawaii. Three years ago, it had none.

Meanwhile, the airline announced a reduction of 37 percent to Mexico beginning July 2. Alaska won't pull out of any Mexican market, but will reduce frequencies to match demand.

Other airlines, including Continental, have reduced their Mexico flying by as much as 50 percent because of the swine flu outbreak south of the border, drug violence in Mexico and recession-caused weakness in the vacation market.

Alaska will begin daily service to Houston on Sept. 23 and daily service to Atlanta Oct. 23.

On the Houston route, Alaska will face Continental Airlines, which has its largest hub in Houston.

On the Atlanta route, Alaska will go up against Delta and AirTran, both of which make the southern city their hub.

Alaska Mileage Plan members can earn double miles on the Houston and Atlanta routes for two months after their inauguration.

On the Oakland-Hawaii and Portland-Maui routes, the airline is offering introductory fares of $169 each way for tickets purchased by May 21.

With airlines around the world suffering from weak travel markets, Airbus announced today it will reduce its production of its Airbus A380 super jumbo jet to 14 this year.

Analysts have been predicting the production rollback for months as Airbus' airline customers report anemic traffic on international routes.

Airbus' biggest A380 customer, Dubai's Emirates, recently pulled an A380 out of Dubai-New York service and substituted a smaller Boeing 777.

The A380 is the world's largest jetliner, capable of carrying as many as 800 passengers in all-economy seating layouts. No airline has thus far configured an A380 that way, preferring to use much of the airliner's space for premium seats. Typical configurations now carry about 500 passengers in mixed class configurations.

Airbus had been predicting it would build and deliver 18 A380s this year.

Turkish Airlines has signed final order paperwork to buy five extended range 777-300ER jetliners from Boeing.

The order is valued at $1.36 billion at list prices for the long-range twin jet.

Turkish has 777-300ERs in its fleet, but those aircraft are leased. The five planes ordered today are the first Turkish has purchased directly from Boeing.

Turkish operates a fleet of 65 Boeing aircraft that also includes smaller, single-aisle 737s.

Both of Alaska Air Group's airlines, Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, saw substantial passenger traffic reductions in April, new company statistics reveal.

Alaska Airlines' revenue passenger miles were down 5.9 percent compared with April 2008. A revenue passenger mile is one paying passenger carried one mile.

Horizon's traffic was off 13.1 percent in the same period.

The two airlines compensated for the recession-fed passenger traffic reductions by cutting their capacity, Alaska by 8.3 percent and Horizon by 13.1 percent.

Because Alaska's capacity reduction was higher than its traffic reduction, it planes were fuller this April than last year. The seaTac-based airline filled 78.9 percent of its seats in April 2009 compared with 76.9 percent in April of 2008.

At regional carrier Horizon Air, the percentage of seats filled during April was the same as last year, 69.2 percent.

The Boeing Co. has already reduced its Washington workforce by 2,027 since the first of the year as moves toward a total 2009 employment reduction of 4,500 here.

New figures from the company show that Washington remains Boeing's biggest employment center by far with 74,277 workers. That compares with 76,417 at the end of December last year.

California has the second largest number of Boeing employees with 25,615 at the end of last month.

The company's Commercial Airplanes Group, headquartered in Tukwila shed 1,687 workers this year so far. It ended April with 65,972 workers.

Those figures for Washington are far below Boeing's previous peak in Washington in the late '90s when employment in the Puget Sound area and elsewhere in the state moved past 100,000 workers.

Boeing worldwide has reduced its workforce by 3,030 this year, company figures show. The company has said it intends to cut its employment companywide by 10,000 workers this year.