Recession, schmessesion
Is the Great Recession no match for Houston?
If you're looking to ride out the Great Recession, Houston is a great place to do it, according to Forbes magazine.
Houston ranked fourth on the magazine's list of the top 10 cities in America where the recession is easing. Among the top 10 cities, four were in Texas, including Austin, which tied with Washington, D.C. for the No. 1 spot.
"If one state is a poster child for economic recovery, it's Texas, home to four of the 10 cities on our list," Francesca Levy writes. "There's more to why Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston are faring well than just the state's energy industry. The tech, government and education industries supplement the oil state's riches. As for housing, cities in Texas didn't see the same run-up in home prices and rampant speculation that led to the spectacular bubble burst elsewhere in the country."
Forbes based its rankings on a lower unemployment rate than the national average, the rate of job growth between December 2007 and December 2009, a healthy job growth forecast from Moody's Economy, the rate of positive change in the median sale price for single-family homes between the third and fourth quarter of 2009 and the Metropolitan Gross Domestic Product for 2008, the most recent year available.
Houston tied for fourth in the rankings with Minneapolis. Our city's job market is expected to grow by 7.03% in the next three years.
Texas dominates the list. In addition to Austin, San Antonio, which has a higher expected rate of job growth than any other city in the country, came in seventh and Dallas rounded out the top five in the number three spot.
Based on these findings, Forbes summarizes what economists have long said. "The cities quickest to emerge from the recession benefit from evergreen industries like government, defense, education and technology — sectors that will always provide work, even in a national slump. In addition, these 10 cities are diverse; their fortunes aren't invested solely in one industry, giving them good prospects for the future."