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And whose metro area has the fastest growing regional economy in the country?
By adamg on Tue, 09/13/2011 - 10:22am
Why, ours, according to the federal Bureau of Economic Analysis:
Of the ten largest metropolitan areas, the three with the fastest real GDP growth in 2010 were Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH (4.8 percent), New York-Northern New Jersey-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA (4.7 percent), and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV (3.6 percent).
H/t Joseph.
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Comments
Yankees suck!
Yankees suck!
More to the point, Rick Perry sucks
Where are the large Texas metros?
Dallas: 2.5%
Houston: 1.6%
And I bet we really killed them on GDP growth per capita.
The GDP numbers show that I'm not crazy.
Well, this is indeed good news in general and for me in particular.
It gives me some hard numbers to give to people who have been looking at me like I have 17 heads when I tell them that, "based on talking with people I know and based on my own observations of things like the traffic that I see on Route 128 every weekday (as bad as I can ever remember seeing it) and the sardine impressions people are doing on the Green Line (I realize that the T's clandestine service reductions might be partly to blame here), the economy does not seem to be nearly as bad as the national media would have you believe - at least in and around Boston."
Now before all the haters come out, I know that there are people around here who are hurting, and that there are more people in that category than there were in, say, 2000. My only point with my statement above is that compared to the stories that I've heard in other parts of the country and my observations there, these numbers do not come as a surprise to me.
And to echo a previous commenter, except to put it a bit less eloquently but in words that Texas et al. can understand:
How do you like "Taxachusetts" now, phatties?
(btw, that misnomer has been such at least since the 1990s. If you want to see a high tax burden, talk to your friends in NY and NJ.)
Much of the problem in the
Much of the problem in the country comes from overbuilt real estate. Since metro Boston was built out 100 years ago, the region doesn't suffer from huge empty housing tracts dragging down the economy. NYC is the same.
I Too Have Witnessed Economic Activity
I too have witnessed economic activity that would seem to indicate some normality returning. Over the Labor Day weekend, I first went to the Rockingham Mall in Salem, NH. Since it was a sunny warm day, I sought a parking spot under cover in the lower garage so my car wouldn't be hot as an oven when I returned. Finding a spot there was like trying to do the same in the third week of December. I sought out a vehicle with its backup lights on only to observe someone else there to take a spot. On the next day, I went to the Circuit City near the NH Liquor store, also in Salem(whose own parking lot was full) to purchase a new TV. Not only was the store full, but I saw some people bringing out brobdingnagian plasma (and possibly 3D)sets for their pickups or SUVs. A 9% unemployment rate presumes a 91& EMPLOYMENT rate, more or less.
Time Machine
Hey, Laurence maybe you went back in time to 2000. Didn't all the Circuit City's close a couple of years ago?
Anyway, if you want to see signs that everybody's not hurting, go down to the Liberty Wharf restaurants in the Seaport District. Even on a weeknight they are packed, appropriately like sardine cans.
Oops...
Ooops...I meant Best Buy, of course. At least I didn't write Lechmere, where I bought almost all my electronics years ago.
Nine percent is the nominal
Nine percent is the nominal rate. Not included are those who have stopped trying to find a job, nor the underemployed, either working part time or flipping burgers. The actual rate is much higher than nine percent.
The other way to look at that
The other way to look at that is to say that in much of the country, growth relies upon continued expansion and development. Take that away, and it collapses. (Texas, notably, continued to expand its population during the downturn. It didn't have a better economic model than Florida, just much, much tougher mortgage regulation that kept its housing market healthier.)
In the areas that did best in this latest survey, the economy has other strengths. Small midwestern cities reliant on manufacturing saw strong growth, as that sector continued to recover. Of course, they also fell much further in the downturn. The real story here is the Boston-NYC-DC Megalopolis, or Northeastern Corridor. It turns out that in a knowledge and service based economy, education matters. The ability to attract, and retain, and educated workforce is a crucial advantage. So, too, is the dense concentration of academic institutions, spawning new companies and novel industries.
The sunbelt will eventually recover, and resume its explosive growth. But sooner or later, its cities will mature. And then they'll be staring enviously back northeast, trying to figure out how to develop an economy that doesn't revolve around a radically expanding population.
Halfbacks
Roger that on the looking enviously back to the NE. It's already happening...have you heard of "halfbacks"? These are people from the NE who went to FL and have left for the Carolinas...on their slow progression back up here.
Back up here? Once you're in
Back up here? Once you're in Florida, it's hard to go in any other direction when you leave. I suspect that the people in the Carolinas are happy to be there now. The joys of snow shoveling are easy to give up.
Another Way Of Looking At It
I bet as a planet we kick Jupiter's ass!
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Hey, Hey, Hey...
Hey, hey, hew...don't get Jupiter angry. It sucks up all those asteroids and comets that would otherwise be raining down on us!
You're Right
You're right. It serves the same purpose vis-a-vis NY-NJ and assholes. I apologize.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Where do massholes fit?
On this planetary scale?
We're on..
..Uranus?
no points...too obvious.