Fresno ranks 8th in California for incoming investment

Published on 06/02/2015 - 1:38 pm

Written by Business Journal staff

Fresno County has ranked No. 8 on a list of California locations receiving the greastest amount of investment in the local economy.

Using a number of metrics including business growth, GDP growth, new building permits and per capita municipal bonds, New York-based financial technology company SmartAsset completed the study determining places in the state most poised for growth.

SmartAsset assigned an "Incoming Investment Index" score to each location, with the location with most incoming investments assigned a value of 100 and the county with the least investment activity a zero.

With an Incoming Investment Index of 0.35, Fresno placed behind Sacramento at 7th place (0.35 index) and in front of Kern County at 9th (0.34 index).

Los Angeles County had the highest index in the state with 0.83, with Orange County (0.48) and San Diego (0.43) rounding out the top three.

Among the top 10 scoring counties in the state, Fresno had the lowest business growth rate of 0.1 percent over a two-year period.

Fresno had the state's third-lowest GDP growth with an additional $2.3 billion in growth.

Fresno was a strong performer in terms of new building permits per 1,000 homes, hitting a score of 7.4 for a second-place showing behind Placer County with 8.2.

Fresno ranked in the middle of the road for municipal bonds raised over the last five years with $248 per capita.

"Fresno County ranked among the top places in California due to a high showing in each of the factors…," according to a news release from SmartAsset.

Nationally, Fresno's Incoming Investment Index ranked at No. 344.

http://www.thebusinessjournal.com/news/small-business/17931-fresno-ranks-8th-in-california-for-incoming-investment