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Metros in South and West Top Milken's Cities Index

September 10, 2008
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Drawing on its high-tech cluster, Provo, Utah garnered the highest score in the 2008 Best-Performing Cities Index released today by the Milken Institute and Greenstreet Real Estate Partners.

The rebounding technology sector boosted several newcomers to the top 10 in the annual ranking of where America's jobs are being created and sustained. Metros that are highly dependent on resource extraction and export-intensive industries also showed success.

Rounding out the top five metros are Raleigh-Cary, NC; Salt Lake City, UT; Austin-Round Rock, TX; and Huntsville, AL.

The report explains that several past leading cities fell in the standings due to the national decline in housing and construction markets, and metros that remain concentrated in manufacturing continue to lag in the rankings. Rising energy prices have hindered the performance of cities where industries with high energy use are the key drivers, while benefiting those regions with significant oil and gas production and exploration activities.

Strong national economic downturns in housing and construction brought down last year's top-ranked cities, with Florida and California metros - including top spot Ocala, FL. (falling from 1st to 30th) and Riverside, CA. (slipping from 3rd to 53rd) - being some of the hardest hit.

Small-Cities Rankings: Midland, TX, moves up from 3rd place in the previous Milken Index to take this year's title as best-performing small metro (those with a population of 235,000 and below), trading places with last year's top performer, Bend, OR., which drops to 3rd. This year's list of small cities contains 124 cities, compared to 174 last year, because the Bureau of Labor and Statistics collected data on fewer small metro areas due to funding cuts. The decrease in the number of cities ranked resulted in a significant gain in year-over-year ranking for some metros.

Interactive data for all 324 metros is available at: http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/.

The full report is available at: http://www.milkeninstitute.org/publications/publications.taf?function=detail&ID=38801171&cat=resrep

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