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Forbes magazine took a look at housing data and unemployment figures to come up with a list of Best and Worst Cities for Recession Recovery. As you would suspect, cities hit hard by a loss in manufacturing jobs (Detroit and Flint, Michigan), or those riding high on the real estate bubble (California's Fresno, Modesto, Salinas, Bakersfield and Los Angeles), will be in for a longer road to recovery. Plus, in the traditional manufacturing cities, how lost jobs will be replaced is a big unknown.
Among the cities with a brighter outlook (Seattle, Huntsville Alabama, and Boulder, Colorado), many have strong technology sectors.
Here's how Forbes came up with the list. The mag looked at estimates from data provider Moody's Economy.com of the projected gross domestic product of metropolitan areas across the U.S., along with unemployment figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and home prices, incomes and affordability data from the National Association of Home Builders.
So... number one on the list? Austin, Texas, which Forbes projects will grow by $5 billion from now until the end of next year. Because the city has a diverse economy (Dell headquarters, University of Texas and Texas state government), employment has stayed stable and the economy is strong. Number 2 is the Fayetteville, Arkansas region, home to Wal-Mart, and number 3 is Boulder, Colorado, home to high-tech labs and the University of Colorado.
On the flip, lagging side of the list are the aforementioned Flint, Fresno and Detroit for all of the aforementioned reasons--a loss in manufacturing (Michigan) and a housing bubble gone bust (California.)
Check out the full list and see how your metropolitan area stacks up. Is yours poised for recovery, or a long slog?
