Omaha ranked No. 1 in financial index

[BRoss]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20120828/N ... cial-index

Omaha ranks No. 1 in the nation in another financial category — a Consumer Distress Index.

A spokesman for the Atlanta-based organization that published the rankings told me Monday that the top spot says a lot.

“It says to me that the people of Omaha are doing quite well,” said Scott Scredon of CredAbility, a nonprofit credit counseling and education agency. “Clearly, average householders there are doing an extremely good job of managing their finances and living below their means.”.

...

Then there's the possibility that high rankings improve a community's perception from around the country. The Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch on Sunday carried an editorial about the distress rankings, noting that Boston came in second overall and Omaha first.

Richmond scored about 10 percentage points worse than Omaha. The newspaper also mentioned that Omaha is the home of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc., which recently purchased the Times-Dispatch.

“Central Virginia,” the editorial said, “hopes some of the relative strength of Omaha and Nebraska rubs off on Metro Richmond and the commonwealth.”