Oklahoma City recognized by Forbes.com

(May 2, 2008) - Oklahoma City was named America’s most recession-proof city in an article posted on Forbes.com this week.

While much of the nation is suffering from a sluggish economy, Oklahoma City was hailed for its falling unemployment rate, strong housing market and continued growth in the agriculture, energy and manufacturing sectors.

“One of the factors contributing to our strong financial picture is the economic stimulation resulting from MAPS and MAPS for Kids,” Mayor Cornett said.  “Credit also goes to a strong oil and gas industry and our broad based business community.”

The City’s Finance Department released a five-year financial forecast at Tuesday’s City Council meeting that evaluated the economic, financial and operational outlook for the City for fiscal year 2009-2013.

The report revealed that Oklahoma City is trending positive in 15 of 20 areas measured, which include population, airport activity, crime rate, personal income, property values, tax revenues, hotel/motel revenues and vacancy rate.

Other cities on the top ten list include:  San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Charlotte, Dallas, San Jose, Raleigh, Salt Lake City and Seattle.

Forbes.com examined the 50 largest metropolitan cities and compared unemployment data provided by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, BLS data on job growth, median home prices from the National Association of Realtors, and a report released in November from the U.S. Conference of Mayors titled “U.S. Metro Economies:  The Mortgage Crises.”

The Forbes.com article can be accessed from the Forbeslife page at www.forbes.com.  Log on to www.okc.gov/finance to read Oklahoma City’s five-year forecast.