Yesterday, The Brookings Institution, a Washington, D.C. based nonprofit policy organization, released a report that classifies the economic recovery of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the country through the third quarter of 2011. The report classified each metro area into 5 categories based on four indicators: employment change, unemployment rate change, gross metropolitan product change, and housing price index change. The full list of metro areas with their classification is available here, but Brookings has also created a very cool interactive map, which is symbolized by economic recovery. Additionally, clicking on one of the map’s metro areas reveals an economic recovery report for the respective metro area.
According to the report, the strongest 20 metros are:
- Albuquerque, NM
- Bakersfield, CA
- Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH
- Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
- Des Moines-West Des Moines, IA
- Detroit-Warren-Livonia, MI
- Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI
- Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
- Lakeland-Winter Haven, FL
- McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
- New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA
- North Port-Bradenton-Sarasota, FL
- Ogden-Clearfield, UT
- Phoenix-Mesa-Glendale, AZ
- Provo-Orem, UT
- Rochester, NY
- San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
- Toledo, OH
- Worcester, MA
- Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA