West Texas isn't so bad after all (Neither is the rest of Texas)!

[lonny23]

West Texas gets ragged on at times on here, but it's not that bad after all. I've attached the Milken Institute's rankings of best cities for economic growth, jobs, etc. and good ol' West Texas isn't too bad, just like the rest of the state does pretty well. The rankings are broken down by the 200 largest metro areas and the rest. Really, the whole state does pretty well.

http://bestcities.milkeninstitute.org/bestcities2008.taf?rankyear=2008&type=rank200

200 largest metro areas:

2008 Rank 2007 Rank

4 20 Austin-Round Rock, TX
7 7 McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
13 33 Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, TX
15 43 San Antonio, TX
16 32 Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown, TX
23 59 Dallas-Plano-Irving, TX
29 60 Fort Worth-Arlington, TX
37 122 El Paso, TX
49 89 Amarillo, TX
56 53 Lubbock, TX
70 85 Beaumont-Port Arthur, TX
88 65 Corpus Christi, TX
119 92 Brownsville-Harlingen, TX

9 of 13 are in the Top 25% (50 of 200) and 12 of 13 are in the Top 50% (100 of 200).

124 smallest metro areas:

2008 Rank 2007 Rank

1 3 Midland, TX
7 30 Longview, TX
10 27 Odessa, TX
26 38 Tyler, TX
27 56 Waco, TX
38 67 College Station-Bryan, TX
40 78 Abilene, TX
44 28 Laredo, TX
61 108 Wichita Falls, TX
81 104 Texarkana, TX-Texarkana, AR

5 of 10 are in the Top 25% (31 of 124) and 9 of 10 are in the Top 50% (62 of 124).

[slorch]

If I had to move back to Lubbock from here, I'd be severely dissappointed.

I don't need a survey for that.