places for business and careers::The subprime lending mess threatens to accelerate the housing slowdown places for business and careers

places for business and careers::The subprime lending mess threatens to accelerate the housing slowdown.
Gas is at its highest price in eight months.
Gross domestic product growth this year is expected to be less than 3 percent for the first time since 2003.
But one part of the country consistently manages to produce strong economic growth and still keep costs down.
For the second straight year, the southeast placed five metros in the top 10 of our best places for business and careers.
While most economies in the west have also outperformed their peers in the northeast and midwest over the past four years, living costs in those regions have risen dramatically.
Housing prices in phoenix, spurred in part by easy lending, are up 57 percent in the past two years, knocking it off our top 10.
When it comes to the best place to do business or start a career, the clear winner this year is north carolina.
The tar heel state, home to banking giants bank of america and wachovia, placed five metros in the top 25.
A new entry on our list of the 200 largest metros is olympia, wash.
Olympia soared to a ranking of 10th overall thanks to strong job and income growth over the past five years.
Based economic research firm economy.
Its business cost index factors in labor, tax, energy and office space costs.
For living costs, economy.
Com weighs housing, transportation, food and other household expenditures.
It also supplied fiveyear historical figures on job and income growth, as well as migration trends.
Other data used in the rankings came courtesy of portland, ore.
Sperling also examined such qualityoflife issues as crime rates and cultural and recreational opportunities.