Durham-Chapel Hill will make ‘among most dynamic recoveries’ from pandemic, study says

DURHAM – Durham-Chapel Hill is one of the top tier cities that will make the “most dynamic recoveries” from the economic devastation created by the COVID-19 pandemic, a new study says.

Moody’s Analytics, which is part of financial data research and analysis giant Moodys’ Corporation, says the Durham area will join other cities such as Austin, Texas, Provo, Utah, Hartford, Conn., Albany, N.Y. and San Jose, Calif. as leaders in a rebirth of business.

The report cites low population density and education attainment of the communities as key reasons for the positive reviews.

Provo topped the list with Durham-Chapel Hill second.

“The most dynamic recoveries may well bypass traditional powerhouses and take place instead in areas that [weren’t] poised to lead the way in 2020 before everything changed,” wrote Adam Kamins, senior regional economist at Moody’s Analytics.

“[S]ome of the places that we’re really looking at now would be places that have high degrees of educational attainment but are lower density … [that] have grown very, very well over the last five or six years in particular, are pretty well positioned coming out of this whenever we do,” he told Yahoo News.

Raleigh is in the middle of the pack.

Kamins also noted that the presence of high-tech firms will give regions a boost.

“Technology really has been the engine of growth the last decade,” he told Yahoo Finance in a video interview.

“Going forward, that will still be the case,”

Kamins noted that several cities in the south and southeast were “particularly well positioned” for recovery.

However, large, densely populated metro areas such as New York, Boston, Miami, San Francisco, New Orleans and Las Vegas will not recover as quickly, Kamins said.

While such cities were “first out” of the 2009-2009 recession, Kamins said they were “inherently risky” now.