Secrets of cities that are booming despite the recession

It turns out that the majority of the cities that have best been able to stave off the affects of this current recession are located in rural America -- small, often isolated towns that have used their strength in a specific industry to isolate themselves from some of the worst economic conditions in recent memory. These are the latest findings from the Adversity Index, a collaboration between Moody's Economy.com and MSNBC.com.

Does a recession resistant city make a good place in which to live? The Adversity Index uses data on employment, industrial production, housing starts, and housing prices to calculate whether each state or metropolitan area is expanding, at risk of recession, in recession, or recovering. This month, the index produced a map of the 35 recession-resistant areas that have either totally avoided or spent no more than nine months in recession over the past 15 years. During that same period, the median time spent in recession for metropolitan areas was 23 months.

But just because many of these these cities spent little time in recession doesn't mean most people would want to spend a great deal of time living there.