Recovery begins in nearly half of US metros

Adversity Index shows upturn in Asheville, Beaumont, Chattanooga...

Investigative reporter Bill Dedman of msnbc.com

Source: www.msnbc.com
Date: March. 2, 2010

Nearly half the metro areas in the U.S. began an economic recovery by the end of 2009, according to new Adversity Index data for December from Moody's Economy.com and msnbc.com.

Out of 384 metro areas in the nation, 183 had begun to recover, or 48 percent, according to the December Adversity Index. That's up from 146 metro areas in November, or 38 percent.

Each month, the Adversity Index uses government data on employment, industrial production, housing starts and home prices to label each state and metro area as expanding, at risk of recession, in recession or recovering. The index was developed by msnbc.com and Moody's Economy.com, which sells in-depth economic forecasts on metro areas.

"In recovery" doesn't mean that an area's economy is above where it was at the beginning of the recession, just that the area has begun to dig its way out of the hole.

A slightly larger group, 200 areas, still were in a "moderating recession" in December, meaning their economies were still shrinking but not so severely as earlier this year. In other words, the recession in general had slowed by December, but a slight majority of metro areas were still in a decline.

Only a single metro area was still spiraling downward in a full recession at the end of 2009: Las Vegas-Paradise.

Nevada was also the only state shown in a full recession, with 29 states in the "moderating recession" category, and 20 states plus the District of Columbia beginning a recovery, up from 16 a month earlier.

Click here to see the rest of this article.