Economically, how is your city doing?

[Jesda]

http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html ... CEBi-dfky4

Spokane WA (my former home), Las Vegas, Tucson, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Little Rock, and Jacksonville are struggling to recover.
Cities in the southwest lost hundreds of thousands of construction jobs though they show signs of recovery in other sectors.
Spokane and Little Rock, meanwhile, have few strengths at all.

Meanwhile, San Jose, various parts of Texas, Nashville, Portland, Minneapolis, Indy, Boston, and SF are recovering briskly form the recession.
SJ, Boston, Portland, SF, MSP, and Austin benefit from highly educated populations which in turn attract top firms which in turn attract more educated people.
The midwest is undergoing a manufacturing resurgence. The recession seems to have shifted trends around the country.
Texas is going through an energy boom as it diversifies its economy.






St Louis, as it has for the last half century, ranks in the bottom half but not at the bottom.



Summary: Bet on Texas.

[szh]

My home city of San Jose, CA appears to be doing okay ...

Although given the recent uptick in home burglaries in our surrounding neighborhoods, I am not so sure anymore.

Z

[lne937s]

Of note, they are ranking them on growth since 2009, not on overall numbers. So, many of the numbers are the result of having taken the greatest hit during the recession and growing back. Here in New York, we didn't take as much of a hit (although their metro area grouping including eastern PA but not southwest CT makes the metro area definitions a little iffy) but overall growth has not been tremendous since.

So, for example, Michigan, Ohio, etc. took a big hit and received big federal stimulus, bailouts and spending, but much of the growth is regaining what they lost. San Jose and Portland keep rising due to technology strength. Oil companies are doing well, particularly due to fracking-related profits. But Nashville has seen growth due to relocation and expansion of business operations in the area, as seen by Nissan (one of the largest employers in the region).

[Dattebayo]

St Louis, as it has for the last half century, ranks in the bottom half but not at the bottom.

Sitting just below you, actually. A pretty big jump for some of those numbers, even though I really don't understand them.

[MinisterofDOOM]

Interesting to see Ogden-Clearfield ranking above Salt Lake City. Historically, (at least since the '70s) Ogden has been a festering hole. However, in the last ~5 years a lot of (re)development has been bringing money and consumer traffic back. Downtown has seen a lot of investment and is a far cry from the dank pit it once was. I worked in downtown Ogden about 12 years ago, and today it's almost genuinely unrecognizable in comparison. The questionable parking structure where I used to park my DeVille for work at a theater (live, not film) and where an actress was mugged one night is now a classy outdoor food court.

I still wouldn't want to live there, as the streets are (typical for Utah) abysmally maintained and homes are all run-down relics of the late-'60s/early-'70s. The schools are also crap. Residentially, Ogden is still a hole. But commercially, it's making a comeback. Unfortunately, due to Northern Utah's 2-dimensional geography (lake to the west, mountains to the east, trapping everything along a north-south strip), working in Ogden probably means living in Ogden, and that's still not appealing, and I'm sure that's a factor in further business growth in the area. I worked in very southern Ogden (well away from downtown) for years and was lucky enough to live in the Layton/Clearfield area which, while far from upscale, is at least not rotting away beneath your feet residentially.

[float_6969]

Topeka is too small to be on the list, but being a small business owner, I can tell you that the recession didn't really seem to effect us too badly, and that things seem to be improving. The new housing market is starting to come back, as I'm seeing a lot of new house construction that I haven't seen in a while. There are also A LOT of new swimming pools being installed. This has also been an indicator of the condition of the economy in this area. They're not usually built when the house it built, so when I start seeing them go in all over town, I know things are starting to improve.