Two TN cities in SmartAsset’s rankings of most resilient communities
With recent economic turmoil and recession concerns as a backdrop, financial advisory firm SmartAsset has published a list of the 50 cities with the most resilient economies, and two of those top ones are in Middle Tennessee.
Murfreesboro was ranked at #23, while Clarksville placed #44. The top ranked community was Cary, NC.
In compiling the report, SmartAsset looked at 14 different metrics across four overarching categories. The broad categories and what they included are as follows:
- Employment: Change in unemployment rate during the Great Recession, 2020 pandemic unemployment rate, 2020 pandemic labor force participation rate, and 10-year job growth.
- Housing: Change in home values during the Great Recession, housing costs as a percent of income, mortgage delinquency rate, and 10-year housing unit growth.
- Social Assistance and Healthcare: Percent of households relying on public assistance, average public assistance amount, and percent of residents with health insurance.
- Economic Stability: Annualized three-year gross domestic product growth rate, state inflation rate, and state rainy day funds as a percent of state expenditures.
Among other findings, SmartAsset found that nine of the 10 most economically resilient cities in its study have fewer than 250,000 residents. Madison, WI, which has a population of 258,000, is the largest of the 10 cities at the top of the rankings. Meanwhile, Seattle and San Francisco are the only two major American cities in the top 20.
