California misses the top ten of Best Cities

Russ Steele

Milken Institute has published it's Best-Performing Cities Index. California cities are not in top ten of the big cites or top ten of the little cities.

Leaders in this year's index, which ranks U.S. metros based on their ability to create and sustain jobs, are all metros that succeeded in avoiding the worst of the economic declines driven by falling housing markets and job losses in manufacturing and global trade. The 2009 Top 10 performers (with 2008 rankings) of the 200 largest metros are:
    1.    Austin-Round Rock, TX (4)
    2.    Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX (13)
    3.    Salt Lake City, UT (3)
    4.    McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX (7)
    5.    Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX (16)
    6.    Durham, NC (21)
    7.    Olympia, WA (9)
    8.    Huntsville, AL (5)
    9.    Lafayette, LA (14)
    10.    Raleigh-Cary, NC (2)

Regional economic factors also strongly influenced the rankings this year, with the oil and gas sector, technology and alternative energy providing stability among metros in Texas, North Carolina, Washington and Louisiana, which also benefited from low dependence on housing/construction. Austin in particular has been helped by its strong tech industry. It is the first metro to rank No. 1 twice on the index, the last time being in 2000.

The Milkin Institute has created an interactive tool that lets readers check there favorite cities ranking here.