TERRE HAUTE — Despite some bad economic news over the past year, Terre Haute remained on a list of the 125 best economically performing small cities in America, according to the California-based Milken Institute.
The Milken Institute annually rates American big and small cities for their abilities to create and sustain jobs. In the latest Milken survey, Terre Haute ranked 120th among American small cities compared with 95th last year.
The metropolitan Terre Haute area had an unemployment rate of 6.3 percent in September of 2008, according to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. In September of 2009, that figure was 9.4 percent.
Although Terre Haute lost jobs in the past year, many other cities showed even worse figures. The way for a city to make the “best performing list” in 2009 was to keep its head above water or not sink too low, the Milken study suggests.
Being one of the “best performing [cities] sometimes means retaining what you have,” said Ross DeVol, lead author of the Milken report.
Avoiding the worst of the housing bubble collapse was one way a city could make the Milken list in 2009, the report states. “The cities with the best performance this year notably didn’t experience large housing bubbles earlier this decade, and thus avoided the inevitable correction,” according to the Milken report. That may have worked to Terre Haute’s advantage.
While average home prices in Terre Haute did fall when the housing bubble burst, local prices had not reached the astronomical heights of some other parts of the country, said Wayne Collins, owner of F.C. Tucker/Wayne Collins Realtors in Terre Haute.
The sale price of the average home in Terre Haute peaked in April 2007 at about $103,000, Collins said. It fell to about $93,000 last year and has recovered to about $97,000 this year, he said. While that’s a significant change, it’s small compared with some areas of the country, Collins said.
“It looks like people are feeling more comfortable with the economy,” Collins said Friday. “I’ve very positive about it.”
Cities with strong service sectors also weathered the past year relatively better than many others, the Milken study states.
Other Indiana small cities making the Milken best performing small city index include Bloomington (57), Lafayette (62), Muncie (105) and Elkhart-Goshen (116).
The Indianapolis-Carmel area was rated 125th among the nation’s large cities. Evansville ranked 170.
In addition to measuring employment, the Milken index also takes into account wage growth and the concentration of technology-based jobs.
Many of the nation’s best performing cities, large and small, were in Texas, according to the Milken index. Austin ranked No. 1. Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Texas, was No. 2 and Salt Lake City, Utah, ranked No. 3 on the large city index. In all, Texas cities captured nine of the top 16 positions among large cities.
Midland, Texas, ranked No. 1 among small cities. Midland, which actually gained jobs over the past year, benefited from rising oil prices in 2007 and a strong retail sector, according to the report.
For more information on the Milken best performing cities index, see www.milkeninstitute.org.
Arthur Foulkes can be reached at (812) 231-4232 or arthur.foulkes@tribstar.com.
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