WalletHub has ranked the 150 largest U.S. cities that have made the most economic progress since the recession. Houston has been ranked No. 5 in the report of cities that have made significant progress.
Here is the full list of cities that have made the most significant progress:
- Denver
- Corpus Christi, Texas
- Anchorage
- Houston
- Oklahoma City
- Minneapolis
- San Francisco
- Fayetteville, N.C.
- El Paso
Researchers looked at 17 indicators including, wage growth, poverty, crime rate, home-value appreciation and full-time jobs in comparison to part-time jobs. WalletHub reported that of the 15 cities that recovered the least, 10 were in Arizona (Tucson, Glendale, Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix) and Nevada (North Las Vegas, Henderson, Reno and Las Vegas).
According to the research, Reno saw its GDP fall 10 percent. In North Las Vegas home prices have fallen 35.8 percent. California saw an 5 percent increase in its unemployment rate since 2009. One of the worst recovered cities is San Bernardino. Since 2006, the city’s home prices have fallen a third, and the average credit score has plummeted 15.7 percent. The median household income had decreased 6.43 percent and the poverty rate increased 7.9 percent.
Despite the many lagging cities in the Southwest, many are doing well due the boost from their energy sector. Among the top are Texas, Oklahoma and Alaska. Lubbock, Texas has seen the greatest improvement. The economic output grew by 28 percent. In addition, population increased 10.9 percent, the median output grew 11.9 percent. Also, the number of part-time workers to full-time workers fell.