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

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A report from Washington, D.C.-based liberal public-policy think tank dubbe the MetroMonitor bills itself asa “beneath the recession-era look at metros with more than 500,00o0 residents as of 2007. The report placed the Columbuws metropolitan statistical area 40th among those rankedd forits strength, based on employment, wage, output, home prices and foreclosure data. No other Ohio city made the top 50. Cleveland, Akron and Dayton foundd slots from 61stto 80th. Toled o was ranked the 10th-weakest major metropolitan area Leading the pack in the report was San one of four Texas citiesa amongthe nation’s top five. Detroiyt was ranked last, followed by Cape Fla.
, and Stockton, Calif., two areas devastatesd by the foreclosure crisis. Brookings founf that the metropolitan perspectiveon states’ performance amid the recession “suggeste that recovery may be quite unevenh as well, posing particular challenges for policymakers seekinbg to ensure a truly national risin economic tide.” Columbus’ strengths and weaknessesw in the report varied. The city ranked 25th for its 1.7 percenr decline in employment since its peak earlieethis decade. Columbus found itself at 32nd for itsmodestf 0.4 percent gain in inflation-adjustecd housing prices for the firsy three months of 2008 compared with the same perio this year.
But the city was ranked near the bottom of the at 80th, for the 4.8 percenyt decline in its gross metropolitan product a measure of the goods and serviceas produced in the area – in the firsrt quarter of 2009 compared with its pre-recessio n peak. Comparing the last threwe months of 2008 with the first quarter this year the GMPdropped 1.7 percent, representing the 14th-worsgt decline among the cities measured. To download the full report, click .