HSV in WSJ story about lending, etc. (Huntsville, Moody: credit, loan)

[caution]

Eh. I can't find the delete button and this article should be part of the "Huntsville Economy" thread where the article was mentioned earlier today by a guy who's probably better looking than me

This article is a good read about healthy-sized cities, or at least the fact that banks aren't too worried about cities like HSV.

WSJ article:

Many Smaller Cities Dodge Crunch in Consumer Lending
Source: Many Smaller Cities Dodge Crunch in Consumer Lending - WSJ.com

Lead:

Consumer-lending activity has increased in numerous midsize cities in the U.S., a sign they are riding out the recession better than big cities and rural towns, an analysis of credit data shows.

As banks pull back on risk taking across the nation, consumer-loan balances in places like Huntsville, Ala., are rising. In Huntsville, a metropolitan area of 376,000 that is home to many government contractors, borrowing increased 13.2% per household in last year's fourth quarter, compared with the year-earlier period, according to data provided to The Wall Street Journal by Moody's Economy.com and Equifax Inc.

Huntsville's increase was the largest among 207 U.S. metropolitan areas tracked by the two data-gathering firms. Similar-size cities such as McAllen and Brownsville, Texas; Yakima, Wash; Provo, Utah, and Lafayette, La., also saw consumer-loan balances rise by more than 8% year-over-year.