Recently the Brookings Institution released a report which provided a great look at the impact of the recession on the metropolitan areas of our country. The Brookings Institution is a nonprofit, public policy organization based in Washington, D.C. One of Washington’s oldest think tanks, Brookings conducts research and education in the social sciences, primarily in economics, metropolitan policy, governance, foreign policy, and global economy and development (wikipedia). The MetroMonitor is a quarterly, interactive barometer of the health of America’s 100 largest metropolitan economies. It examines trends in metropolitan-level employment, output, and housing conditions to look “beneath the hood” of national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country.
The MetroMonitor ranks the nation’s largest metropolitan areas on their economic performance based on these indicators: Employment, Unemployment Rates, Wages, Gross Metropolitan Product, Housing Prices and Foreclosure Rates. This particular report, which covers the 1st quarter of 2009, is the most comprehensive analysis of how the largest metropolitan areas are holding up during tough economic times.
Baton Rouge came in 8th out of the 100 metro areas surveyed, thanks to a booming construction industry along with the help of 2 major universities. We also ranked 4th overall in the area of job growth and showed a 3.3 percent jump in area housing prices in the 2nd quarter of 2009 over last years survey of the same period.
Here are the top 10 cities:
1. San Antonio, TX
2. Oklahoma City, OK
3. Austin, TX
4. Houston, TX
5. Dallas, TX
6. McAllen, TX
7. Little Rock, AR
8. Baton Rouge, LA
9. Tulsa, OK
10. Omaha, NE
and here is the bottom of list which is the 10 worst performing metropolitan areas
91. Providence, RI
92. Toledo, OH
93. Stockton, CA
94. Fresno, CA
95. Modesto, CA
96. Jacksonville, FL
97. Lakeland, FL
98. Tampa, FL
99. Bradenton, FL
100. Detroit, MI
On the web:
- The Brookings Institute
- Metro Monitor
