In case you missed it, the I-4 corridor cities of Tampa and Orlando fared very well among the 379 U.S. metro areas rated by Moody’s Economy.com for their overall economic vitality. Tampa was 15th and Orlando 7th.
The bottom line seems obvious. Tampa’s growth in jobs and business in the professional services sector and a Bay Area unemployment rate of 3.3 percent more than offset turmoil in the real estate sector. For Orlando, it meant that an alarming murder rate doesn’t hurt as much as it should.