% of households in foreclosure

Best
0.486 Alaska
0.513 Washington
0.543 Oregon
0.524 Oklahoma
Worst
2.002 Florida
3.376 Nevada

This is nonsense as you have a very high forclosure rate compared to many states.

Kevin, You are so right you are almost left! I had an interest in a salt water tank company. The oil companies couldn't buy our tanks, or explore, or build refineries(which were allowed) or pay banks which caused many of them to fail. Carter may be a good guy to have for a next door neighbor but he was an idiot (wrong word because I don't want to run idiots down) when it came to fiscal policy. He closed the door on so many oil companies and those left had to merge. This opened the stream of imports which eventually led to our war and problems in the Middle East and Carter hasn't yet learned his lesson to just stay in the U.S. and raise peanuts and build houses but is messing where he has no business.

If energy companies are unfairly taxed again (as happened when Jimmy Carter occupied the Oval Office), Oklahoma's economy will suffer greatly.

Dennis, you are so right they did do that back then. I don't think it was to the extent that this market has gotten too. I may be crazy (probably) but it seems to me that it happened so fast and furious, like nothing I have ever seen . They are building everywhere & people just starting out in life used to buy a pre-existing home within a price range they could afford . These kids now days buy brand new houses & worry about how to pay for them later. Not to mention the people that not in a million years should ever have been allowed to buy homes , this was bound to happen & Cletus you can blame Bush all you want but he did not create this housing problem irresponsible people did it, with no help from him. BTW Cletus who in the hell are you going to blame when Bush is gone???

Bush is the worst rated President in history...hope you Okies are happy with who you voted for, now you're paying for your mistake.

Jimmy...I was watching 20/20 or something like it a few weeks ago, and they had a segment on there about HOW to flip real estate. I recall back in the 70's, folks were buying up HUD homes (bidding), live in them a couple of years while fixing them up, sale it, and then move onto another one.

David, I wish I had thought about the whiskey I could have saved my nose & tastebuds a lot of trouble. You're right about the house flipping they are a huge part of this mess as well.

I agree with you totally, Paul. I really love the picture they chose to run with the story, too. Not everyone is so lucky to work there or at the other "top companies to work for in OK". Most Oklahomans work for small business and quite simply the pay and benefits (or lack thereof) are barely keeping up on a day to day business. GM, Dell, Tinker (possibly), who will be next? It's a scary world out there and we're not recession-proof by any means. All we can do is pray about it first and then plan carefully the best way we know how.

Just keep remembering that famous bumper sticker of the 80's...cause you're going to need them again, and soon. Recession proof? Hardly. This state is already affected and it's working it's way up through the class structures of it's people...and it's climbing higher.....

This is great news!! The leaders of Oklahoma City have been working for many years to prepare the City for ups and downs and now have a stable economy. It takes "leadership" to keep moving a city in the right direction to attract good companies and keep people interested in the city. I am so glad to be an Oklahoman, Congrats Mayor, City Manager and Council.

No, was said that Vegas was recession proof too. When the energy sector goes bust again (and it will, these things go in cycles) our economy will nose-dive (we haven't learned a thing).

Jimmy, It certainly didn't help with having people all across the country falsifying home loan applications, thinking they could buy a home and then flip-it in a few months for a big profit. They just never learned you can't believe everything you see or hear on Television. As for Texas water, when I lived in Texas I was a whiskey drinker-- chasing it with a little water every once in a while... it tasted OK to me....LOL

David of Altus the only thing you said that I disagree with is the taste of the Texas water YUCK!!!! You can usually even smell it before you ever taste it. I grew up in Odessa & have been all over Texas they do have a great state, they pay no state taxes but the property taxes there are really big compared to ours. I guess if you grow up somewhere you can see a certain beauty in things & I just remember the big refineries & how they lit up the Texas sky, to me it's pure beauty. I don't think anyone is recession proof , I think it just hasn't really hit that hard here yet!! Dennis the housing in North Carolina is unbelievable & the wages in eastern Carolina very low. I have heard from people I know there, that it really isn't as bad business wise as we hear about, but then again I guess everyone has their own concept of what bad is. Gas prices are bad but I truly believe it was the housing market that killed us all. To much way to fast,just plain greed & stupid people willing to pay outrages prices for a house. ( I hope that is spelled right??). Worst case scenario everyone packs up and decides to move to okc, the job market would be tough for sure. At that point you definitely would want to hold on to your job.

Anyone here honestly think that the 500+ people who were just recently told they are going to be laid off at the new Dell call center are comforted by the fact that Forbes is proclaiming Oklahoma as being recession proof?

Paul, are you implying the "numbers lie and lairs figure"?

Throwing out the numbers makes Oklahoma look good. People working in the oil industry are doing well. Tinker employs a huge segment of Oklahoma City. These are the jobs with above average(for Oklahoma) wages. While things look recession proof the poor people have already been greatly affected by gasoline and food prices. Sometime numbers don't tell the whole story.

Dennis, In 2004, USA Today listed household debt at around $485,000 and it has now increased to about $516,348, for a total of$53 trillion. That includes our government debts. Personal debt per household averages around $84,500 so perhaps Forbes could be using that figure since it might be such a thing the average family in Okla. may owe considerably less than that. Being retired, I believe I would want to join you in anarchy if I owed anywhere near that much. There is just no way I could pay it off unless my rich uncle died and left it to me. Hey wait a minute, I don't have an uncle that is living and even the ones I had weren't rich.

oops...July, 2004.

Recession lingers in Oklahoma; State lags nation in job growth, report says. ----- While most states have emerged from a recession, Oklahoma remains in one, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. ----- Although a recovery should appear in the second half of this year, the state may not return to pre-recession employment levels until 2005, the FDIC says. Oklahoma's status was discussed Wednesday as FDIC analysts held a teleconference focusing on economic and banking conditions in each state. -----
Despite a recent surge in job numbers, Oklahoma employment growth continues to lag the nation. ----- Oklahoma, along with Ohio and pockets of North Carolina, are still in a recession, particularly because of manufacturing problems, said Rae-Ann Miller, associate director of the FDIC's division of insurance and research. ----- That was in July, 4004. ----- I guess it's pretty much like a rollercoaster ride?

So you are saying that a drastic increase that later results in a major decline is good?? I was taught that small consistent growth was much better (big picture wise) than drastic growth that is unstable. I believe what we are seing is good community leadership coupled with basic common sense. Folks this was a great pat on the back by a major publication. We should be very thankful. Yes some of our major facilities have closed down GM/Firestone/Lucent and we are still doing fairly well compared to the rest of the country. That speaks volumes to our stability. No we are not impervious but apparently currently we are just a little safer.

I guess it's a good thing that Oklahoma never invested heavily in the auto industry like Michigan, or in textiles like North Carolina. I'll sleep better tonight knowing that OKC is recession-proof (for now).

Mike in Kingfisher. Your take on your folks house in Kingfisher is OK, I admit. A house in Denver that cost 35K in 1977, today is right at 550,000. Do you get my point? Southern California is probably 750,000. My son bought a house in Denver 2 years ago for 840,000. That house in OKC is less than half that.

Our economy is not driven much by the financial markets, as it is the oil and agriculture markets. So with current financial picture we are somewhat buffered. But if the early to mid 80's type slump hits the state, then its lights out.

Good grief, there certainly are some surly pessimistic folks on here. I disagree with Rob from Oklahoma City. My folks paid $35k for their Kingfisher home in 1977. It now values at $120k. Not to shabby.

As a matter of fact I have been to Houston, Odessa, & Kilgore during their heydays of Oil production-- I've also been to Tulsa and Elk City during their heydays too- I've had family members working in the oil patches of Oklahoma & Texas for several decades--- I look at the "BIG PICTURE", ......the benefits of oil [and coal] and its related industry to the Texas economy and overall health of the state far out weighs the insignificant negatives your focused on......and Oil / Gas production sure didn't hurt Tulsa or the Elk City area either [environmentally or economically] -- that is until the boom was over-- when they lost their tax base and their modern infrastructures fell into disarray and housing markets collapsed. And let us not forget that once upon a time OKC had a thriving patch of oil derricks [even on the Capital's grounds]-- didn't hurt OKC and its environment significantly did it????? Not by a long-shot! Your not ever going to see me hugging a silly old elm tree and Al Gore... I'll leave that to the global warming fruitcakes.... by-the-way, isn't it still snowing in many parts of the U.S?-- More of that blasted global warming again. LOL :>)))) It has nothing to do with selling your soul, it is about using the common "horse sense" that God gave us all to use.

I don't know if we are recession proof as much as we just don't go too high or too low economically. We seem to be permanently lower middle class for the most part.

I've been to the industrial areas of SE Houston and you're correct, Shiela. I guess if you want to sell the state's soul, there's no better way.

David, have you been to Houston by the industrial local. Its not pretty in that area or smells very good, But if we can put some big industial company's next to your house in altus I will go for it.

I'd bet that 30 years ago, it could have been said that Detroit was recession proof- what with all the auto makers [that use to be] located there.... And all those cities that lost military bases within the last few years, they probably thought they were recession proof too- well, OKC has already lost GM, and Tinker isn't a sure thing for the future--- considering how land-locked it is... preventing future growth. If we want to see OKC & Oklahoma made recession proof, we need to get off of our sanctimonious [environmentally GREEN] behinds and approve coal fired electrical generation plants and offer great incentives / land to oil companies to build new refineries in this state--- instead of letting these industries locate / build in states like Texas...... a state where there still is no personal state income tax... in large part because of its embracing of the oil & coal industry- without imposing insane environmental protection laws--- and I certainly don't see where the coal & oil industries have hurt the Texas environment... its one of the prettiest states I've ever visited- clean air, good tasting water, great scenery and excellent roads. Boy, we certainly wouldn't want that here in Oklahoma, would we? :>(

So the reason Forbes has ranked us as recession proof is because "it's what we're used to"? It's not measuring whether people believe there is a bad recession, it's measuring economic statistics. Basically, Forbes, a respected business publication, is telling us that our metro has the best economic security and outlook in the nation. I'll take it.

Of course housing here is good, that's because it hasn't gone up compared to other cities in the last 30 years. A house I paid 130,000 for in 1982 is worth about 220,000 today and it's in a nice area. If you don't go up much, you don't have far to fall.

I agree with Trudy. It is what we're use to.

Oh, Kevin is on the mark. It was a most likely to withstand a recession measurement. I think we're pretty good, but definately not completely insulated. If we hedge bets on one single thing like we did in the 70's, history will repeat itself.

Anybody who thinks we're insulated from a recession needs to take a tour of Cushing - if you can afford the gas. Never, ever assume you are insulated from something because of geography. Anyone connected to Oklahoma leadership should know better than this.

I believe that the article states we are the best candidate to be recession-proof, not stating that we already are or were.

All I need to do is drive south on Council Road from Lucent on and see the closed buildings to know Oklahoma most certainly is NOT recession-proof. That is just a few mile area. I didn't even have to mention GM.

We're not recession proof, especially since so much of our economy is tied to oil and gas and crops and livestock.

Living and working full time in this area of medium to low income we have become insensitive to the "recession" concept that seems to have gripped the nation. We barely keep put heads above water & this is what we are used to. Recession?? nope just another day in the life. This too shall pass

So far our family hasn't been hit too hard. We've cut back on some luxuries, but all in all we're in much better shape than my daughter in L.A. or other friends around the country with whom I correspond by e-mail. I have every confidence in our city. I think we are on the precipice of becoming a city in the ranks of Atlanta, Dallas or Kansas City.