McAllen ranks in top 11 cities for beating the recession; longest period of job growth
June 17th, 2010
McAllen Economic Corporation Blog
McAllen, TX ranked No. 11 in the United States for beating the recession, according to the June 2010 MetroMonitor released by the Brookings Institute. The report indicates: “Of all the cities in the ranking, McAllen has experienced the longest period of job growth, gaining jobs over the last four quarters.”
Click here to read article.
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recession. Show all posts
Thursday, June 17, 2010
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
McAllen Listed in the 20 Cities Surviving the Recession
May 12, 2010 by High Def
Filed under Featured, News/Editorial
McAllen, Texas
This area includes Mission and Edinburg. Like the rest of the metro areas in Texas, McAllen is showing promise for the future. Employment growth has happened even during the recession, and there is demand for technology and business professionals. Service industries are also doing reasonably well in McAllen.
Click here to read full article
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Just one metro area (McAllen) regained its pre-recession peak employment level...reported recently by The Brookings Institution
In a Recent Report by The Brookings Institution: Just one metro area (McAllen) regained its pre-recession peak employment level
The Brookings Institution
December 2009 — MetroMonitor:
Tracking Economic Recession and Recovery in America’s 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas Cities, Regions and States, U.S. Economy, Unemployment, Housing
Click Here to Read Full Report
Nationwide, the recession is over—at least in the view of most economists in light of third quarter 2009 indicators. They revealed a real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increasing at a 2.8 percent annual rate, after four consecutive quarters of contraction. Most interpreted that rate of output growth, along with other signals such as increasing housing prices, as indication that the economic recovery is underway.
...
Six metro areas—Albuquerque, Austin, McAllen, San Antonio, Virginia Beach, and Washington, DC—had regained their pre-recession peak level of output by the third quarter. Just one metro area (McAllen) regained its pre-recession peak employment level. No metropolitan area had a lower unemployment rate in September than it did one year earlier, though increases over that period ranged widely, from a little over 1 percentage point to more than 8 percentage points.
...
The Brookings Institution
December 2009 — MetroMonitor:
Tracking Economic Recession and Recovery in America’s 100 Largest Metropolitan Areas Cities, Regions and States, U.S. Economy, Unemployment, Housing
Click Here to Read Full Report
Nationwide, the recession is over—at least in the view of most economists in light of third quarter 2009 indicators. They revealed a real U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) increasing at a 2.8 percent annual rate, after four consecutive quarters of contraction. Most interpreted that rate of output growth, along with other signals such as increasing housing prices, as indication that the economic recovery is underway.
...
Six metro areas—Albuquerque, Austin, McAllen, San Antonio, Virginia Beach, and Washington, DC—had regained their pre-recession peak level of output by the third quarter. Just one metro area (McAllen) regained its pre-recession peak employment level. No metropolitan area had a lower unemployment rate in September than it did one year earlier, though increases over that period ranged widely, from a little over 1 percentage point to more than 8 percentage points.
...
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Video: Increasing business in a recession is the goal of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation
Increasing business in a recession is the goal of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation with a strategy that they claim will create jobs here in the Valley.
Action 4 News
VallyCentral.com
Sunday, October 18, 2009
In Case You Missed It…
In Case You Missed It…
The Westside Story
Published 10/17/2009 - 12:23 a.m.
CST AUSTIN – MSNBC.com and Moody’s Economy have announced that the Austin-Round Rock, Brownsville-Harlingen, Dallas-Plano-Irving, El Paso, Lubbock, McAllen-Edinburg-Pharr and San Antonio areas are among the first in the nation to move from recession into recovery, indicating that their economies have grown over the past six months.
The announcement is based on MSNBC and Moody’s Adversity Index, which uses data on employment, industrial production, housing starts and home prices to place each state or metro area in one of four categories: expanding, at risk of recession, in recession or recovering. This is the first month this year that any U.S. metro area has moved from in recession into recovery.
Additionally, CNN Money has ranked Texas as one of the Top Five Best States to Launch a Business thanks to our reasonable tax structure and incentive funds such as the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. The article also credited the franchise tax exemption, passed at Gov. Perry’s direction during the 81st Legislative Session, with fostering growth in small businesses in the state. Texas is the only large state to be ranked.
To view the MSNBC and Moody’s ranking, please visit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33312701/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/.
To view CNN Money’s ranking, please visit
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0910/gallery.best_places_tax_havens.smb/2.html
The Westside Story
Published 10/17/2009 - 12:23 a.m.
CST AUSTIN – MSNBC.com and Moody’s Economy have announced that the Austin-Round Rock, Brownsville-Harlingen, Dallas-Plano-Irving, El Paso, Lubbock, McAllen-Edinburg-Pharr and San Antonio areas are among the first in the nation to move from recession into recovery, indicating that their economies have grown over the past six months.
The announcement is based on MSNBC and Moody’s Adversity Index, which uses data on employment, industrial production, housing starts and home prices to place each state or metro area in one of four categories: expanding, at risk of recession, in recession or recovering. This is the first month this year that any U.S. metro area has moved from in recession into recovery.
Additionally, CNN Money has ranked Texas as one of the Top Five Best States to Launch a Business thanks to our reasonable tax structure and incentive funds such as the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. The article also credited the franchise tax exemption, passed at Gov. Perry’s direction during the 81st Legislative Session, with fostering growth in small businesses in the state. Texas is the only large state to be ranked.
To view the MSNBC and Moody’s ranking, please visit
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33312701/ns/business-eye_on_the_economy/.
To view CNN Money’s ranking, please visit
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2009/smallbusiness/0910/gallery.best_places_tax_havens.smb/2.html
Monday, October 5, 2009
Another Indication that the Rio Grande Valley is Weathering the Recession Better than Most of the Country
Another Indication that the Rio Grande Valley is Weathering the Recession Better than Most of the Country
McAllen credit rating upgraded
Standard and Poor's calls it the best in Rio Grande Valley
Nick Pipitone
The Monitor
McALLEN –- The city’s credit rating was recently upgraded by the financial services company Standard and Poor’s, another indication that the city and regional economy are weathering the recession better than most of the country.
S&P cited continued employment and population growth, an increasingly diversified economy, strong financial management policies and moderate overall debt levels as the primary reasons for upgrading the city’s rating two spots, from AA- to AA+, the second-highest possible rating, behind AAA.
Horacio Aldrete-Sanchez, S&P’s primary analyst on the McAllen rating, said the city has the highest rating in the Rio Grande Valley. It also brings the city in line with the state’s bigger metro areas and other mid-level U.S. metro areas S&P considers financially stable, like Knoxville, TN and Cincinnati, OH.
The city requested S&P re-visit their credit profile in August because they no longer had any outstanding debt bonds, which is what credit agencies usually rate, city Finance Director Jerry Dale said.
“I know the agencies have all been reviewing credit in light of what they’ve called the new international standards,” Dale said. “Because of that, I wanted them to look at the city to see where we were in comparison to others.”
The city will also be looking to issue approximately $14 million in debt to fund the new main library at North 23rd Street and Nolana, so will be soon accessing the credit markets again, Aldrete-Sanchez noted in the report S&P issued last month on the city’s new rating.
The higher credit rating is a “significant step” for the city, Aldrete-Sanchez said, and will mean a couple of things.
First, the city will be able to borrow money at a lower cost when looking to fund capital improvement projects, which could translate to savings of up to $1 million in the library bond transaction, City Manager Mike Perez said.
For residents, those savings should help the city keep its tax rates and utility fees low, Dale said.
The higher rating also can be used as a recruiting tool to draw companies looking to relocate.
“When (companies) look at a community, it’s important to them that it’s well-run, stable and tends to be pro-business, or at least not anti-business,” said Keith Patridge, president of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. “To increase the credit rating for the city, it very clearly through a third party demonstrates that McAllen hits all three.”
The credibility of financial research and analysis companies like S&P and Moody’s took a hit during the economic meltdown last fall. Both agencies had several of the sub prime loans and bonds that contributed to the financial collapse rated high, sometimes at AAA. But the agencies’ track record on local government and municipal bonds is better, and most investors still look to them, said Ansley Chua, finance professor at the University of Texas Pan-American.
“People still trust them,” Chua said. “We basically have nobody else to grade them, so we kind of have to trust somebody.”
Dale said the city has been working to improve its credit profile for several years and reverse the misperception held by many investors that the Rio Grande Valley was “a collection of dusty little towns with no economic development and everybody starving to death.”
Since 1982, the city’s rating has improved from A-plus to AA-minus in 2004, to its AA-plus rating today.
—
McAllen credit rating upgraded
Standard and Poor's calls it the best in Rio Grande Valley
Nick Pipitone
The Monitor
McALLEN –- The city’s credit rating was recently upgraded by the financial services company Standard and Poor’s, another indication that the city and regional economy are weathering the recession better than most of the country.
S&P cited continued employment and population growth, an increasingly diversified economy, strong financial management policies and moderate overall debt levels as the primary reasons for upgrading the city’s rating two spots, from AA- to AA+, the second-highest possible rating, behind AAA.
Horacio Aldrete-Sanchez, S&P’s primary analyst on the McAllen rating, said the city has the highest rating in the Rio Grande Valley. It also brings the city in line with the state’s bigger metro areas and other mid-level U.S. metro areas S&P considers financially stable, like Knoxville, TN and Cincinnati, OH.
The city requested S&P re-visit their credit profile in August because they no longer had any outstanding debt bonds, which is what credit agencies usually rate, city Finance Director Jerry Dale said.
“I know the agencies have all been reviewing credit in light of what they’ve called the new international standards,” Dale said. “Because of that, I wanted them to look at the city to see where we were in comparison to others.”
The city will also be looking to issue approximately $14 million in debt to fund the new main library at North 23rd Street and Nolana, so will be soon accessing the credit markets again, Aldrete-Sanchez noted in the report S&P issued last month on the city’s new rating.
The higher credit rating is a “significant step” for the city, Aldrete-Sanchez said, and will mean a couple of things.
First, the city will be able to borrow money at a lower cost when looking to fund capital improvement projects, which could translate to savings of up to $1 million in the library bond transaction, City Manager Mike Perez said.
For residents, those savings should help the city keep its tax rates and utility fees low, Dale said.
The higher rating also can be used as a recruiting tool to draw companies looking to relocate.
“When (companies) look at a community, it’s important to them that it’s well-run, stable and tends to be pro-business, or at least not anti-business,” said Keith Patridge, president of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. “To increase the credit rating for the city, it very clearly through a third party demonstrates that McAllen hits all three.”
The credibility of financial research and analysis companies like S&P and Moody’s took a hit during the economic meltdown last fall. Both agencies had several of the sub prime loans and bonds that contributed to the financial collapse rated high, sometimes at AAA. But the agencies’ track record on local government and municipal bonds is better, and most investors still look to them, said Ansley Chua, finance professor at the University of Texas Pan-American.
“People still trust them,” Chua said. “We basically have nobody else to grade them, so we kind of have to trust somebody.”
Dale said the city has been working to improve its credit profile for several years and reverse the misperception held by many investors that the Rio Grande Valley was “a collection of dusty little towns with no economic development and everybody starving to death.”
Since 1982, the city’s rating has improved from A-plus to AA-minus in 2004, to its AA-plus rating today.
—
Monday, September 7, 2009
Companies find refuge from recession in McAllen
(Employment : McAllen-Edinburg-Mission) 8/17/2009 1:00:00 PM
(McAllen) - RECON
International companies uprooted by the nationwide recession are planting roots in the Rio Grande Valley.
ALPS Automotive Inc., Fujitsu Ten Corp. and Panasonic Electronic Devices Corp. are moving large portions of their businesses from the Midwest and the South to McAllen. The three auto parts suppliers have had a presence in Reynosa for years, but want to cut costs as auto sales sag.
Fujitsu Ten is moving its distribution and logistics operations from Rushville, Ind., to a newly leased building on Ware Rd. The move, which should be complete by the end of September, will create 32 new jobs in McAllen.
Panasonic has found itself in a similar situation. The company — which produces speakers, switches and censors — announced last week it will move its headquarters from Knoxville, Tenn., to McAllen.
It is also moving its speaker assembly operation from Forks of the River, Tenn., to its manufacturing plant in Reynosa.
The speaker assembly operations move should be complete by December. Headquarters will open in April 2010.
ALPS decided to move its support operations — quality control, customer services, planning and purchasing — from Detroit to McAllen when it learned the McAllen Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) was working to create a college-educated workforce.
And the recession has accelerated the move.
The MEDC has been cooperating with the engineering department at University of Texas Pan-American to prepare Valley residents for careers with these companies.
The department graduated four engineers when it opened in 1995. It now graduates 100 engineers a year.[Brownsville Herald]
(McAllen) - RECON
International companies uprooted by the nationwide recession are planting roots in the Rio Grande Valley.
ALPS Automotive Inc., Fujitsu Ten Corp. and Panasonic Electronic Devices Corp. are moving large portions of their businesses from the Midwest and the South to McAllen. The three auto parts suppliers have had a presence in Reynosa for years, but want to cut costs as auto sales sag.
Fujitsu Ten is moving its distribution and logistics operations from Rushville, Ind., to a newly leased building on Ware Rd. The move, which should be complete by the end of September, will create 32 new jobs in McAllen.
Panasonic has found itself in a similar situation. The company — which produces speakers, switches and censors — announced last week it will move its headquarters from Knoxville, Tenn., to McAllen.
It is also moving its speaker assembly operation from Forks of the River, Tenn., to its manufacturing plant in Reynosa.
The speaker assembly operations move should be complete by December. Headquarters will open in April 2010.
ALPS decided to move its support operations — quality control, customer services, planning and purchasing — from Detroit to McAllen when it learned the McAllen Economic Development Corp. (MEDC) was working to create a college-educated workforce.
And the recession has accelerated the move.
The MEDC has been cooperating with the engineering department at University of Texas Pan-American to prepare Valley residents for careers with these companies.
The department graduated four engineers when it opened in 1995. It now graduates 100 engineers a year.[Brownsville Herald]
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