Manteca when it comes to how healthy its economy is as well as how well it is generating jobs is ranked as the 21st strongest among 515 cities nationally analyzed by a WalletHub panel of experts.
The personal-finance website Monday released its report on 2018’s Fastest Growing Cities in America in terms of economic and population growth using Census Bureau data and other information ranging from unemployment rate decrease and job creation to building permits issued to gains in household income and home values. The data compared changes from 2011 through 2017.
In seven specific areas among the 515 cities analyzed, Manteca overall was
25th in population growth.
66th in median household income growth
32nd in job growth.
5th in the decrease of the unemployment rate.
15th in working-age population growth.
21st in foreclosure rate decrease.
17th in median price house growth.
When those seven factors are weighed together, Manteca ranks 21st overall and 9th among small cities under 100,000.
“Getting us to where we are has been a work in progress of all councils before us (that have) worked to make Manteca a better place,” said Manteca Mayor Steve DeBrum. “As in any business you have your ups and downs but constant hard work by everyone will improve the business position.“
Manteca stacks up well against Bay Area cities. Its weighted score of 64.65 as 9th on the small city list was better than San Francisco at 56.89 points that came in 9th on the list of large cities with 300,000 or more residents. Manteca even topped Oakland at 56.40 points as the 11th largest city and San Jose at 56.34 as the 12th largest city.
Three Bay Area municipalities topped Manteca in the small city list. Milpitas was 4th at 70.29 points, Pleasanton was 5th at 69.39 points, and Redwood City was 7th at 67.17 points.
Regional small cities finishing behind Manteca were Mountain View at 61.12 points in 13th, Livermore with 58.74 points in 17th place, Union City at 53.79 points in 31st place, Napa at 51.07 points in 45th place, Tracy at 50.46 points in 46th place, Turlock at 50.22 in 50th place, San Leandro at 48.02 points in 63rd place, and Merced with 40.02 points in 121st place.
In order to determine the most rapidly growing local economies, WalletHub compared 515 cities of varying population sizes based on two key dimensions, “Sociodemographics” and “Jobs and Economy.”
They evaluated those dimensions using 15 relevant metrics. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the fastest economic growth. For each metric, they analyzed data spanning from 2011 to 2017 with the exception of “Increase in Number of Startups” (from 2010 to 2014), “Increase in Number of Businesses” (from 2011 to 2016) and “Increase in Venture Capital Investment Amount (from 2010 to 2016)”.
Finally, they determined each city’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order.
The six experts that produced the report were:
James Gaines, Chief Economist, Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
Lucie Laurian, Professor, Urban and Regional Planning Program, University of Iowa.
Douglas S. Kelbaugh, Collegiate Professor or Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan.
Edward J. Jepson Jr. Lecturer, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona.
Patrick McNamara, Professor, Director of International Studies, University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Austin Troy, Chair and Professor Department of Urban Planning and Reginal Planning, University of Colorado, Denver.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@manteabulletin.com
