What a difference a year makes. As the pandemic continues to shift norms and reshape how and where we live, work and play, Metro Phoenix supplants powerhouse cities like Dallas, Seattle and San Francisco in the Milken Institute's distinguished Best-Performing Cities for 2021.

Phoenix ranks No. 7 on the annual index, which tracks the economic performance of approximately 400 U.S. metropolitan statistical areas, utilizing an outcomes-based set of metrics including job creation, wage gains, and high-tech GDP growth to evaluate the performance of cities relative to one another. Metro Phoenix ranked No. 12 in 2020.

Additional criteria including “housing affordability” and “broadband access” reflect the upheaval of 2020, and the shifting markers of a city’s success in a year defined by stay-at-home orders and social distancing. West Coast stalwarts like San Francisco, San Jose and Seattle relinquished their grip on the rankings, giving way to Intermountain and Southwest cities like Boise; Provo, Utah; Salt Lake City; and Phoenix

New entrants to the top-10 “are outperforming many areas on the coasts, mainly due to their higher levels of short-term job growth and more affordable housing," financier and Institute founder Michael Milken says.

The Milken Institute, a California-based nonprofit, nonpartisan think tank, helps people build meaningful lives in which they can experience health and well-being, pursue quality education and gainful employment, and access resources required to create opportunities for themselves and their broader communities.