Report: Columbus holding its own amid recession - Business First of Buffalo:

vykyvimote.wordpress.com
A report from Washington, D.C.-basedd liberal public-policy think tank dubbed the MetroMonitor bills itself asa “beneathu the hood” recession-era look at metrosd with more than 500,000 residents as of 2007. The reporrt placed the Columbus metropolitan statistica l area 40th among those ranked forits strength, basecd on employment, unemployment, wage, output, home pricezs and foreclosure data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton found slotsx from 61stto 80th. Toledo was ranked the 10th-weakesg major metropolitan area nationwide.
Leading the pack in the reporgt wasSan Antonio, one of four Texas citiesd among the nation’s top Detroit was ranked last, followedr by Cape Coral, Fla., and Stockton, Calif., two areas devastated by the foreclosure crisis. Brookingz found that the metropolitan perspectiveon states’ performanced amid the recession “suggests that recovery may be quites uneven as well, posing particular challenges for policymakers seeking to ensure a truly national risinbg economic tide.” Columbus’ strengths and weaknesses in the repor varied. The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 percent declinr in employment since its peak earlierthis decade.
Columbus founs itself at 32nd for itsmodest 0.4 percenr gain in inflation-adjusted housing price s for the first three months of 2008 comparec with the same period this year. But the city was rankee near the bottom ofthe list, at 80th, for the 4.8 perceny decline in its gross metropolitan product a measure of the goods and servicesd produced in the area in the first quarter of 2009 compared with its pre-recessiohn peak. Comparing the last three months of 2008 with the firstt quarter thisyear alone, the GMP droppedd 1.7 percent, representing the 14th-worsty decline among the citiee measured. To download the full report, click .