Denver Most Recovered City since Great Recession

Denver receives many ‘Best of’ acclaims and this is one high ranking the city can be especially proud of. The Mile High City ranked No. 1 for recovering more from the Great Recession than any U.S. city.

The Great Recession had a huge impact on the national economy from 2007 to mid-2009. Investors suffered as the S&P Index fell 57 percent. Homeowners saw the housing market crash and home values dropped about 30 percent and unemployment reached about 10 percent nationally.

Now, in the near decade since, the economy has turned around in many cities – none more than Denver, according to a study by personal finance resource, SmartAsset. Study metrics measured multiple economic factors, including unemployment, income growth, and housing prices.

Denver gained big across almost every metric. Unemployment decreased from 11.9% in 2010 to just 4.3% in 2016. The poverty rate decreased 7.9% from 2010 to 2016, which was the largest decrease for any city in our study.

In home values, Denver has seen a 44.3 percent increase since the recession – the fifth-largest increase of metros analyzed. Household incomes also grew 35.57% – the sixth-highest.

California has also experienced big changes since 2009, with four of the top 10 most recovered cities in the state, where home values rose by at least 43 percent between 2010 and 2016, according to SmartAsset.

Five metrics were combined and each city’s average ranking across the metrics was calculated. Metrics include:

• Change in unemployment rate. Data comes from the Census Bureau’s 1-Year 2010 and 1-Year 2016 American Community Survey.
• Change in the labor participation rate. Data comes from the Census Bureau’s 1-Year 2010 and 1-Year 2016 American Community Survey.
• Change in the poverty rate. Data comes from the Census Bureau’s 1-Year 2010 and 1-Year 2016 American Community Survey.
• Change in median household income. Data comes from the Census Bureau’s 1-Year 2010 and 1-Year 2016 American Community Survey.
• Change in median home value. Data comes from the Census Bureau’s 1-Year 2010 and 1-Year 2016 American Community Survey.

For the full study visit https://smartasset.com/mortgage/cities-that-have-recovered-most-since-the-recession