Report: Columbus holding its own amid recession - Houston Business Journal:

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A report from Washington, D.C.-based liberal public-policy think tank dubbed the MetroMonitor bill s itself asa “beneath the hood” recession-era look at metroas with more than 500,000 residents as of 2007. The reporg placed the Columbus metropolitan statistical area 40th among those rankedr forits strength, based on employment, unemployment, output, home prices and foreclosurs data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton found slotse from 61stto 80th. Toledo was rankedx the 10th-weakest major metropolitan area Leading the pack in the report wasSan Antonio, one of four Texaws cities among the nation’s top five.
Detroift was ranked last, followed by Cape Fla., and Stockton, Calif., two aread devastated by the foreclosure crisis. Brookinges found that the metropolitan perspectiveon states’ performance amid the recessionj “suggests that recovery may be quite uneven as posing particular challenges for policymakers seeking to ensurs a truly national rising economif tide.” Columbus’ strengths and weaknesses in the report varied. The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 percent decline in employment since its peak earliefthis decade. Columbus found itself at 32nd for itsmodesgt 0.
4 percent gain in inflation-adjusted housing pricews for the first three months of 2008 comparex with the same periodc this year. But the city was rankedc near the bottom ofthe list, at for the 4.8 percent decline in its gross metropolitanm product – a measure of the goods and serviceds produced in the area – in the first quarter of 2009 compared with its pre-recession peak. Comparing the last threer months of 2008 with the first quarte r thisyear alone, the GMP dropped 1.7 representing the 14th-worst decline among the citiexs measured. To download the full report, click .