It’s time to take another look at the Milken Institute’s Best Performing City data; we last visited this treasure trove of information back in the last week of June (26,27) when we looked at their best and worst ranked cities in the Large Cities Index.  

As noted back in June, if you’re not familiar with the Milken Institute; spend a bit of time on their website.  They offer an amazing array of data and commentary, and cover a lot of ground.  It’s a great place to challenge your mind and stretch your perspectives, as well as garner all sorts of market and economic insights that don’t always make the headlines.

With regard to their Best Performing Cities Index, published every two years for both large and small markets, they rank the MSAs that by their assessment are demonstrating the healthiest economic performance and creating the most jobs.  They assess jobs, job creation, wage and salary information as well as technology growth.  As the summer has progressed onward and the various economic stresses continue to tug on the economy and job engine, we’ve noted that many of their picks back in 2007 aren’t doing so well currently.  Hey, nobody’s perfect, and we still think their measure has great value when assessing markets. 

Here are the top five markets on the Milken Institute’s Best Performing Small Cities Index –

1. Bend, OR (1)
2. St. George, UT (2)
3. Midland, TX (3)
4. Hinesville, GA (4)
5. Winchester, VA (5)

Interestingly, two of these markets (St. George and Midland) look very strong for multifamily investors.  Tomorrow we’ll take a look at those markets at the bottom of the Milken list. 

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