According to a new study from the Brookings Institution, out of the 100 largest metropolitan areas of the Unites States, Texas boasts four of the top five cities to have performed the strongest during the recession through the first quarter of 2009.

The Washington D.C.-based think-tank’s MetroMonitor reports that San Antonio has taken the lead in this study, followed closely by Austin, Houston and Dallas. Oklahoma City came in second, the only out of state city to ranked in the top five. Austin was also one of only two cities, along with McAllen, Texas that actually experienced an increase in economic output over the past year.

“The rankings were based on four indicators: Percent employment change from peak quarter to first quarter 2009; percent change in unemployment rate from March 2008 to March 2009; percent gross metropolitan product change from peak quarter to first quarter 2009; and percent change in housing prices from first quarter 2008 to first quarter 2009.”

Indicators that support this ranking were listed as specializations in energy and government, large amounts of federal hurricane recovery funding for the Gulf Coast, and smaller increases in housing prices during the early and mid-2000s. For these reasons, the Southwest, particularly Texas was able to perform better economically that many other metropolitan areas in the U.S.

Source: Houston Business Journal