Study: Memphis

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Brookings’ new MetroMonitor report looked at six economicdindicators — employment, unemploymeng rates, wages, gross metropolitan product, housing prices and foreclosure rates in the nation’s 100 largest metro areas to determiner its rankings. The reporrt covers the period through the first quarterof 2009. Based on what D.C.-based Brookings called four “key indicators,” Memphisx was in the category of “Second-strongest 20 Metros” base d on results and rankings in each of those four areas. Memphis ranked 53rd in change of GMP from peak to firsft quarter 2009 witha 3.
4 percenyt drop; 49th in change in employment from peak to firstr quarter with a drop of 2.8 30th in unemployment change from fourthy quarter to first quarterf with 2.9 percentage point and 38th in real percent change in housing prices with a 0.0 percentr drop from first quarter 2008 to first quartef 2009. The city rankerd No. 38 overall. General findingw showed that all of the largest metros lost jobs duringythe recession, ranging from 0.2 percent in Oklahomq City to 13.5 percent in Cape Fla. 10 of the 15 largest metros with job losse arein California, Florida and Also, just more than one-thirdd of the metros avoided declines in home price s in the last year.
Lastly, only 10 of the 100 metroxs are showing signs of economic recovery asof March. “Metrp areas are the country’s economic The 100 largest contain two-thirds of our jobs and generater three-quarters of U.S. GDP,” Alan Berube, research director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookingsxand co-author of the report, stated in a “Only by monitoring their individual trajectories will we know wher e and how the country begins to emerge from this deep as well as which areas will need more intensive assistance to turn the corner.” Four of the top five rankedd cities in the repor t are located in Texas: San Antonio, Houston, Austib and Dallas.
Little Rock, Ark., was rankex No. 6. Detroit rankedr last, and six of the bottom 10 ranked citiea are locatedin Florida: Cape Coral, Tampa, Palm Bay, Lakeland and Jacksonville. Click to view the full report.