Miami, Again, Among 20 Worst Economically Performing Metro Areas

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By Kyle Munzenrieder in Recessionomics

Tuesday, Sep. 15 2009 @ 1:07PM

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No, this isn't a temperature chart. The 20 weakest metros are dotted in red.

Florida dominates the list of 20 metropolitan areas still struggling to make an economic turnaround. Eight Florida areas make up the bottom rung of worst-performing cities in Brooking's latest MetroMonitor Report.

In addition to Miami/Ft. Lauderdale/Pompono Beach, Bradenton, Cape Coral, Jacksonville, Lakeland, Orlando, Palm Bay, and Tampa are also included in bottom rung.

"Eight of the 20 metro areas that had the worst economic performance in the recession are in the South, all in Florida. These areas suffered severe employment, output, and home value declines over the past year due to the broader housing fallout, the decline of long-distance tourism during the recession, and delayed retirement resulting from the general decline in financial wealth, which has reduced in-migration and housing demand," reads the report.

The study took empolyment, the unemplyment rate, gross metropolitan product, housing prices, and real estate-owned properties (foreclosed properties that fail to sell at auction) into account.

On the unemployment front, Miami performs weakly but still fares better than the rest of the Florida cities in the bottom rung. The percent change in employment from peak employment to the second quarter (ending in June) of 2009 was -5.9 percent. While the unemployment rate jumped 5 percent from June in 2008. The GMP is down 5.5 percent since peak product, again slightly better than most of the other cities in Florida.

The real pain comes in housing prices. They're down 19.3 percent, coming in at 97 out of the top 100 metro areas in the nation.