Oklahoma City ranks economically in upper third of 100 cities

Oklahoma City ranked highest in the recovery in its housing prices (10th) with authors of “Metro Monitor” indicating the city bottomed out in a relatively mild drop a year ago. Meanwhile, 73 other cities in the survey hit bottom in the second quarter of 2012.

The survey shows Oklahoma City ranking 22nd in overall recovery, with employment ranked 18th and economic output ranked 32nd.

It showed improvement the past year in eight of 14 industries measured, with the largest increases of 14.8 percent in mining (including oil and gas) and 15 percent in education fields. The largest drops over the past year were construction, at 8 percent, and information, at 5 percent.

The report's authors noted that while other recent economic reports point to a slowed pace of national economic recovery in the spring of 2012, major cities showed “tremendous variation.”

“This edition of the Metro Monitor finds that from January to March 2012, employment growth accelerated across most of the nation's 100 largest metro areas, while output growth weakened,” the report states. “Unemployment rates continued to fall in more than half of all metropolitan areas, but remained above 6 percent in all but 11 metro areas. Housing prices, on the other hand, hit new lows in 73 of the 100 largest metro areas, raising new concerns after signs of growth in previous quarters.”