Why Not Philly?

You'd think that Philly, as the 5th largest metro area in the USA, would merit mention in an index of 20 metro areas in the US. But you'd think wrong.

The Philadelphia-Camden, NJ-Wilmington, DE area is the 5th largest metropolitan area in the USA, having an estimated 5,827,962 people as of 2007¹. Yet it's not even a data point in Standard & Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, a widely-quoted measurement of the residential housing market, "tracking changes in the value of the residential real estate market in 20 metropolitan regions across the United States."

I had heard that measurement in the past, and had blithely (and mistakenly) assumed that it included the top 20 USA markets; it doesn't -- it reflects S&P's choice of 20 markets to included in the indices. I have failed to find an explanation in the S&P webpage that explains the indices' methodology as to how the 20 markets were selected, but I did find enough data to conclude the following:

#1 - NYC - Included
#2 - LA - Included
#3 - Chicago - Included
#4 - Dallas - Included
#5 - Philadelphia - Excluded
#6 - Houston - Excluded
#7 - Miami - Included
#8 - Washington, D.C. - Included
#9 - Atlanta - Included
#10 - Boston - Included
#11 - Detroit - Included
#12 - San Francisco - Included
#13 - Phoenix - Included
#14 - Riverside/San Bernardino, CA - Excluded
#15 - Seattle - Included
#16 - Minneapolis/St. Paul - Excluded
#17 - San Diego - Included
#18 - St. Louis - Excluded
#19 - Tampa - Included
#20 - Baltimore - Excluded

By the way, Philly, alone (i.e., without the rest of the metropolitan area), would weigh in just below Riverside/San Bernardino and bounce Seattle and everyone else down a notch.

Other areas included in S&P's Composite 20 index:
#21 - Denver
#23 - Portland
#25 - Cleveland
#30 - Las Vegas
#35 - Charlotte

I am going to pursue an explanation from the folks who produced the methodology explanation. In the meantime, though, it strikes me that this great city deserves better.

¹Per the most recent population estimate table (2007) available on the U.S. Census Bureau's website, the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington Metropolitan Statistical Area (which includes areas in PA, NJ, DE, and MD), with 5,827,962 people, is the 5th largest in the USA (trailing the metropolitan statistical areas associated with NYC, LA, Chicago, and Dallas).