According to a new study, Utah’s largest metropolitan areas are among the top performers in the country when it comes to economic vitality.
Provo-Orem, Salt Lake City, Ogden-Clearfield, Logan and St. George are all at or near the top of theirs in the latest Best Performing Cities Index, a technology-driven ranking created and intended by the nonprofit Milken Institute Categories landed to improve people’s lives and economic conditions.
(Christopher Cherrington | The Salt Lake Tribune)
“Cities drive economic growth nationwide,” wrote the institute’s authors. “They are the main places where businesses create new jobs and workers earn higher wages, keeping the United States competitive in the global economy.”
Provo-Orem regained its place at the top of the Top Performing Large Cities on the Index of 200 Similar Size Cities Analyzed, after falling to second place last year. The ranking combines measures of job growth, income, productivity and technology sectors, as well as housing affordability and access to broadband.
The annual index of the California-based economic think tank ranked fourth among the top tier cities in Utah’s capital in 2021. He was ranked 25th last year, and Ogden-Clearfield was ranked ninth down from 22nd place.
According to analysts at the Milken Institute, the larger metropolitan area of Provo-Orem in the heart of Utah County, spanning the nexus of technology firms focused on silicon slopes, has been of preeminent importance for both productivity and the sheer number of high-tech industries .
The study called Provo-Orem “a relatively new innovation center” but said it offers “a high quality of life and amenities in the mountain region”.
Provo Mayor Michelle Kaufusi agrees, saying that with mountains to the east and a lake to the west, Provo is a great place to live. She says it naturally also attracts innovators.
“To be honest, it is in our legacy to be efficient ourselves,” said Kaufusi. “At Provo, we’re all about being creative thinkers, and not [being] Afraid of starting and running a business. “
Kaufusi said the city is fortunate to be a university town that is home to Brigham Young University and Utah Valley University. She said schools produce young, educated hard workers who are not afraid to think big.
Kaufusi said her administration worked hard to make the city business-friendly. She said she was grateful to Provo-based tech company Qualtrics and home security company Vivint for choosing to keep local headquarters after becoming big companies.
“I’m sure they could have gone anywhere in the world to do their business … especially as [they] got bigger, ”she said of the founders of Qualtrics.
Logan ranked second on the list of 201 smaller cities studied after finishing third last year. St. George came fourth on that list, as in the 2020 study.
Idaho Falls, the Gem State’s second largest metropolitan area, topped the list of best performing small towns due to the high short-term job growth and solid productivity gains in the city’s high-tech companies.
The Best Performing Cities Index has been largely based on jobs, wages, and high-tech growth over the past few years, but has been changed in light of the pandemic to add economic inclusion metrics, the authors said. The annual calculation now also takes into account the percentage of urban households spending less than 30% of their income on residential purposes, as well as household access to some form of broadband internet access.
Utah homes even cheaper
In cities in Intermountain West – Salt Lake City, Provo, Ogden, Boise, Phoenix, Denver, and Fort Collins, Colorado – jobs and wages soared well above the national median and climbed the rankings of these cities – including those in 2021 in Utah – are seeing a rapid rise in house prices, according to analysts. Your housing costs remain relatively affordable compared to other US population centers.
The study found that, through significantly lower costs, Provo-Orem has become, for example, “a recipient of the migration of the technology sector from the expensive west coast”.
With these new patterns of teleworking, the migration trend is also likely to lead to a recent surge in demand for residential real estate on the Wasatch frontline, as well as in Park City and Summit and Wasatch counties, where house prices continue to escalate and real estate stocks are near or near all-time lows.
Kaufusi said her government was planning 30 years later to try to maintain Provo’s high standard of living even as the state’s population grows. She said the city wants to ensure that there is affordable housing, that crime remains low, that development is sustainable and that the city maintains a sense of community. She said this means planning more infrastructure and trying to increase housing conditions near transport hubs while protecting residential areas.
“It all comes down to small steps. We have to get the infrastructure in the ground, we have to make sure that this is what the citizens want and then we go from there, “she said of the city’s long-term planning.
Unlike Utah, some California metropolitan areas – including San Francisco, San Jose, and Riverside – declined in their overall ratings, which in some cases was dramatic, largely due to housing costs and unemployment.
“This could point to the oversized impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on so-called ‘superstar cities’, which have suffered the most local job losses,” the study’s authors wrote, “and on the migration of high-tech workers to areas at a lower cost. ” how they work from home. “
Global and national forces, including the coronavirus pandemic, have also rocked the underlying economic performances of many cities over the past year, the authors wrote. But the top performing metropolitan areas, including Utah, have managed to leverage what they need to remain competitive from a business perspective “regardless of the country’s macroeconomic development.”
“These cities combine steady growth on the one hand and dynamic innovation on the other,” they wrote, “particularly through concentrated investments in high-tech sectors that create positive spillover effects for local communities.”
Utah is better positioned after the pandemic
Salt Lake City and the Ogden-Clearfield area posted some of the tallest jumps in the rankings, though Huntsville, Ala., Made up 49 places to reach 10th place among major cities this year. This is part of a national upward shift in the ranking of cities in the south and in Intermountain West.
Utah was the only state to have three cities in the top 10 highest metropolitan areas.
In addition to past performance, the index rankings also provide insight into how well cities are expected to recover economically from the effects of COVID-19. This ability to recover, according to the authors, is based on a balance between opportunities in the high-tech industry and affordable living costs.
Cities with strong and diverse technology sectors “are more resilient” to the pandemic in the face of unprecedented economic upheaval, the institute said. At the same time, cities will also benefit from their COVID-19 recoveries through greater economic inclusion, by providing “a foundation that will attract additional businesses and workers – especially those who prioritize quality of life”.
– The grandstand reporter Sara Tabin contributed to this story.
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