Biz Bits: Nebraska ranks as the best place to be in a worst-case economic scenario | Business News

Inflation, rising interest rates and a number of other factors have the “R” word creeping back into the vocabulary.

Yes, more and more experts are convinced a recession is on the horizon.

A recent poll by Reuters found that 40% of economists believe the U.S. will experience a recession sometime in the next two years, while a Wall Street Journal poll found that 28% of economists believe it will happen in the next year.

The good news, readers, is that if a recession does happen, you’re in the best place to ride one out.

Merchant Maverick, a website that reviews and compares small-business software and services, says in a recent report that Nebraska is the best place to be if the country falls back into recession.

Nebraska’s composite score in the report was 78.8, well ahead of second-place North Dakota, which scored 72.2.

Here’s what Merchant Maverick had to say about Nebraska:

“Though Nebraska may not be the first state that comes to mind when discussing economic powerhouses, the Cornhusker State looks to be on solid footing when it comes to surviving the next recession. With ample government reserves (23.1%), a great debt-to-income ratio (0.62), and the lowest unemployment rate in the nation (2.3%), Nebraska sets the pace for the rest of what looks to be a recession-resistant Upper Midwest region.

“One more reason to run for cornfields instead of the hills if the economy flatlines: Nebraska weathered the Great Recession better than most other states.”

You can see the report and rankings at: merchantmaverick.com/best-states-survive-recession.

Perhaps one of the reasons Nebraska weathers recessions so well is because we have a population that is financially literate.

Personal finance website WalletHub ranked the state No. 1 is its 2022’s Most & Least Financially Literate States report, which was released this month.

The ranking was based on 17 metrics, ranging from the financial literacy grade of high-schoolers to the share of adults who have rainy-day funds.

WalletHub did not disclose state rankings for individual metrics, but instead for three categories. Nebraska was third overall for financial planning and habits, sixth for financial knowledge and education and 28th when it came to “wallet literacy.”

You can see the full report at: tinyurl.com/mt3fd5d9.

Anybody who rents an apartment or house knows that rents have been climbing, even during the pandemic.

The Washington Post on Thursday had a story about the increase in rent nationwide, using data from real estate firm CoStar.

That data showed the Lincoln metro area has seen its average rent jump 10% over the past two years to more than $1,000 a month. While that’s nowhere near the highest increases nationally — which were as much as 39% in Naples, Florida — it’s still high.

Lincoln’s 10% increase was higher than the increases in Omaha, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids, Sioux Falls and Wichita. It was also higher than pricey college towns such as Madison, Wisconsin, and Fort Collins, Colorado.

Another report, from Apartment List, puts Lincoln’s two-year rent growth from March 2020-March 2022 at 14.8%, including an 11.7% gain just in the past year.