Brookings report ranks Raleigh-Cary strongest metro in N.C.

Triangle Business Journal - by Cameron Snipes

A report by the Brookings Institution that gauges the impact of the recession on metropolitan America has listed the Raleigh-Cary metro area as the strongest in North Carolina, and among the top 40 in the nation.

Brookings’ MetroMonitor ranks the nation’s 100 largest metro areas based on their economic performance as judged by six key indicators – employment, unemployment rates, wages, gross metropolitan product, housing prices and foreclosure rates.

The listing is broken down into five groups of 20. The groups are listed as strongest, second-strongest, middle, second-weakest and weakest. The report covers the entire first quarter of 2009.

The Greensboro metro was listed in the report as one of the country’s second-weakest metros, while Charlotte was among the 20 middle metros.

Here’s how the Raleigh-Cary metro are fared in key data: The percentage change in employment from peak employment to first quarter 2009 was negative 2.9 percent; the percentage change in the unemployment rate from the first quarter 2008 to the same quarter in 2009 was 4.6 percent; the percentage change in gross metropolitan product from peak GMP to first quarter 2009 was negative 1.1 percent; and the real percent change in housing prices from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009 was 2 percent.

Four of the top five strongest performing metros, according to the report, are in Texas. They are San Antonio, Austin, Houston and Dallas. Oklahoma City was the other representative on the top five list. On the other hand, four of the five weakest are in Florida. They are Bradenton, Tampa, Lakeland and Jacksonville. MetroMonitor determined that Detroit was the weakest-performing metro in the country.

The MetroMonitor, which will be released on a quarterly basis, bills itself as an interactive barometer of the health of America’s metropolitan economies and looks at national economic statistics to portray the diverse metropolitan trajectories of recession and recovery across the country.RT