Texas has 5 of 6 best performing cities in US

Houston Chronicle:

Houston has so far weathered the recession better than most of the country’s major metropolitan areas, according to a report released today by the Brookings Institution, which found that Houston’s housing prices were the most resilient in the country.

Despite a rising unemployment rate, Houston’s overall economy ranked fourth out of the country’s 100 biggest cities as of March, the report found, placing it just behind Austin and just before Dallas. Five of the six best-performing cities were in Texas, including San Antonio, which led the list based on factors including employment, wages, and housing prices.

On the lower end of the spectrum were cities in California, Florida and Michigan. Detroit ranked lowest overall.

Economists say Houston’s relative immunity from the housing bubble shielded it from the devastation other cities saw, and that the city’s specialized energy jobs also helped.

“It’s not just housing, but what Houston does,” said Alan Berube, a co-author of the study. “Energy has been a good thing for Houston.”

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Housing in Houston was more affordable to begin with, because it did not impose the restrictions that drove up prices in many cities. The five cities in Texas are also a reflection of the strength of the Texas economy overall. In the last two years Texas has created 80 percent of all jobs created in the US. It is the number one exporting state.

Texas has shown how success can be achieved by using conservative principals with fewer restrictions on the development of energy and housing. The rest of the country should be learning from this success, but I fear that Obama will be attacking it instead. His energy taxes and his hostility to energy production are a potential problem that the winner of the next governor's race will have to deal with.