Ah, the resilience of the Los Angeles economy.  Although California was, perhaps, the state hit hardest by the current housing crisis, Los Angeles bounces back above the rest of the state and other big cities throughout the country, with an overall economic resurgence that places it in ninth place for all American cities. 

The factors considered for this ranking are 

·        unemployment rate
·       job growth
·       expectations for continued job growth
·      positive change in median sale price for single-family homes
·        metropolitan gross domestic product 

Los Angeles has strong banking and finance industries and a housing market that, while it suffered a major pricing bubble and burst, has seen an increase in demand.  After falling to a median $311,100 in the second quarter of 2009, home sale prices jumped 11% in the third quarter and another 2% between the third and fourth quarter of 2009 to a median of $342,700, according to the National Association of Realtors, making Los Angeles number four in sales price improvement for all U.S. metropolitan cities. 

Part of L.A.’s dramatic rise is due to the fact that our real estate woes began earlier and were more pronounced than most of the country, so our easing began a little sooner.  Some of the economic reasons for this recovery are the evergreen industries that comprise our city… industries like government, defense, education and technology – sectors that will always provide work, even in a national slump.  Our industry diversity, a business infrastructure not solely invested in one industry, gives us a healthy, resilient economy and very good prospects for the future.