Cities survey shows Seattle is doing OK in recession

The Brookings Institution, a center-left think tank in Washington, D.C., has some words of reassurance for recession-weary Puget Sound-area residents: Things could be worse.

Brookings, which analyzed the recession's impact on the 100 largest U.S. metropolitan areas, placed Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue squarely in the middle tier of urban areas — neither among the strongest, such as Dallas or Pittsburgh, nor the weakest, such as Detroit, Providence or pretty much any place in Florida or California.

Brookings divided the 100 metro areas into fifths — strongest, second-strongest, middle, second-weakest and weakest. Seattle was in the middle fifth; the Portland-Vancouver-Beaverton area, which includes Clark County in southwest Washington, was in the second-weakest group.

The institution ranked each metro area on criteria including employment, housing prices, foreclosures and gross metropolitan product, or GMP. The Seattle area ranked first in first-quarter GMP growth, 73rd in home-price decline over the past four quarters, and at various places in between on the other criteria.

The full report: www.brookings.edu/metro/MetroMonitor.aspx.

Drew DeSilver: 206-464-3145 or ddesilver@seattletimes.com