Texas leads economic recovery rankings

A panorama of downtown Austin, Texas, United S...Image via Wikipedia
Houston Chronicle:

Four Texas metropolitan areas — Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and Houston - dominate the top 15 U.S. cities in a global study to determine the level of cities' recovery from the recession.

The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program report ranks 150 cities: 50 in the United States, 50 in Europe and 50 in the rest of the world. Austin was the highest-ranked U.S. city and No. 26 in the world. Dallas ranks as the No. 4 U.S. city and No. 39 in the world.

San Antonio ranks No. 11 in the U.S. and No. 51 in the world.

Houston is ranked No. 15 in the U.S. and No. 61 in the world, according to the report, Global MetroMonitor, which received assistance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

San Antonio, Houston and Dallas rose in global rankings during the past two years from their pre-recession rankings. Austin stayed about the same, ranking No. 25 among the 150 metros before the recession.

The report found that income and job growth in metropolitan areas exceed those of their nations as a whole, which means large cities are leading the global recovery from the 2007-09 recession.

The cities recovering the fastest are outside the United States. Twenty-nine of the 30 best-recovering cities are outside the United States, with only Austin making that group.

Metros in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East are making the strongest recoveries. The top five metros, in order, are: Istanbul, Turkey; Shenzhen, China; Lima, Peru; Singapore and Shanghai, China.

...

Just as low-wage and low-business cost areas did well around the world, Texas dominated the U.S. metropolitan rankings for the same reasons, Phillips said.

Companies can move to Texas from high-cost areas of the United States and pay lower wages. But real wages, after housing and food, are higher for Texas workers than in high-cost U.S. metros, Phillips explained.
Not having strong unions helps. Also having Wal-Mart and similar stores helps keep the cost of living down. Texas is a low tax area for businesses and they continue to move here from California and other high cost high regulation areas.Austin has profited greatly from Dell Computers being just down the road and it has brought in several tech companies.
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