A booming job market, stable housing prices and wage growth contributed to Bend and Redmond rising in rank from No. 6 to No. 4 in the annual Milken “Best Performing Small City” list for 2025.

This is the ninth consecutive year that the region has placed among the top 15 small cities, according to the list created by the California-based nonprofit think tank.

The rise in ranking is a testament to the strength of the region’s economy, particularly in the high-wage industry of software and bioscience, said Jon Stark, Economic Development for Central Oregon CEO. The region also benefits from educational partnerships that provide a pipeline of local talent to businesses, Stark said.

“At EDCO we continue to focus on diversifying our economy and driving wage growth, which helps counter employment fluctuations,” Stark said. “Our region’s success in expanding affordable housing, which is the strongest in the state per capita, will continue to attract innovative businesses looking to thrive in a dynamic and resilient economy.”

Despite all the glowing comments about the Bend-Redmond metro area, the report highlighted that the region’s ability to stabilize housing prices, compared to the rest of the nation, played a role in bumping up its ranking.

The top three Best Performing Small Cities, according to Milken, were: Gainesville, Georgia; St. George, Utah; and Idaho Falls, Idaho, according to the annual ranking. The cities were ranked on 13 metrics in three main categories: wage and job growth, high tech impact and access to economic opportunities.

“The Bend-Redmond metro area continued to experience booming employment and wage growth through 2023 and 2024,” said Maggie Switek, Milken Institute senior director of research. “Housing prices have also remained stable in Bend-Redmond as compared to the rest of the nation, contributing to the metro area’s improved position.”

Strong employment growth in the health and leisure as well as the hospitality sectors also helped the region move up. Combined, those sectors employ about a third of the two cities’ workers, according to Milken.

Katy Brooks, Bend Chamber of Commerce CEO, said employers in the region not only added jobs, but provided significant wage increases. In addition, the Bend-Redmond areas have a strong bio-health and tech sector that keeps growing, Brooks said.

“This is due to sustained growth in industries that put down roots here and have grown or split into new companies,” Brooks said. “I also think one of our superpowers is our sustained ability to support economic opportunity through our work in densifying our growing industry sectors like bio.”

Bend has several bio-tech firms that originated in Bend and have grown into larger companies or merged with larger firms.

One of those firms is Serán, which is building out a 60,000-square-foot testing and manufacturing facility. In Central Oregon, the bioscience and medical device industry has experienced year-over-year double digit growth for nearly a decade. Currently, the industry employs nearly 1,200 people in the area.

In addition to Serán, the region is home to companies like Lonza, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Grace Bio-Labs are globally recognized for their work.

“Once the number of businesses in any given sector increases there is more investment, more attraction of talent and more supporting businesses move in to take advantage of this growth,” Brooks said.

The education and health-services industries employ 17.2% of Bend’s workers, a 5.3% increase from 2022 to 2023. The two main employers are St. Charles Health System and the Bend La Pine School District, which employ a combined 5,800 people.

Meanwhile the leisure and hospitality sector was the second largest employer. The report noted that Mt. Bachelor, a mere 20 miles from town, is one of North America’s largest ski areas and attracts visitors.

The leisure and hospitality sector grew 10% from 2022 to 2023, according to the report.

The Milken ranking shows that the Bend-Redmond areas ranked fifth for wage growth, 29th for households with broadband, and 62nd for high tech gross domestic product growth from 2018 to 2023, according to the report.

Gainesville, Georgia

St George, Utah

Idaho Falls, Idaho

Bend-Redmond

Midland, Texas

Jefferson City, Missouri,

Coeur d’Alene, Idaho

Jacksonville, North Carolina

Missoula, Montana

Auburn-Opelika, Alabama

Source: Milken Institute