The cities performing well since the country's economy bottomed out all have one thing in common: They are doing more, with less.

While these cities were battered by increases in unemployment and declines in home prices during the recession, they have since bounced back to growth.

They're doing it with fewer people working, so efficiency has clearly been the driver of recovery in these spots.

It's also worth noting that many of these regions were not hard hit by the house price tumble, a huge source of the country's multi-year slowdown.