CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business 2026, the 20th edition of the annual study by Scott Cohn published July 13, 2026, ranked the 10 strongest state economies in the country. Texas came in second, behind North Carolina. In the full study, weighed down by quality-of-life factors, Texas finished #4 overall.
North Carolina at #1
North Carolina posted the country’s best economy despite its legislature failing to pass a budget for more than a year. The state ran on its old spending plan until Governor Josh Stein signed the new budget this week. Underneath the dysfunction: 2025 GDP of $682.4 billion, up 2.7%, a Moody’s Aaa rating, $5.26 billion in foreign direct investment in 2024, and a net gain of 84,100 residents in 2025, the most in the nation. The corporate anchors are defensive and cash-generative: Bank of America (NYSE:BAC | BAC Price Prediction), Duke Energy, and Labcorp. The one soft spot: nearly 40% of state spending depends on federal funding, the 12th-highest exposure in the country.
Texas: The Economic Juggernaut With a Housing Problem
CNBC called Texas “an economic juggernaut year after year.” The state posted 2025 GDP of $2.27 trillion, up 2.5%, and pulled in $22.1 billion in foreign direct investment in 2024, the largest of any top-10 state. It leads the nation in exports per capita. The headquarters roster keeps growing: Oracle (NYSE:ORCL) in Austin, Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) at Gigafactory Texas, and AT&T (NYSE:T) in Dallas. On June 16, 2026, NVIDIA’s Jensen Huang broke ground on Coherent’s advanced manufacturing facility in Sherman, Texas.
For real estate owners and buyers: the housing market is stagnating, price appreciation has stalled, and foreclosures are rising. That breaks from the last decade’s pattern. Tariff risk is a second overhang: international goods trade equals 29.3% of nominal GDP, the highest share of any top-10 state, at $850.2 billion, still exposed to duties not invalidated by February’s Supreme Court ruling. And quality of life ranked #49 out of 50, which is why Texas ranks #4 overall despite the #2 economy.
The Rest of the Top 10
California ranked #3, with the nation’s largest GDP at $3.38 trillion and unemployment at 5.3%, the highest in the country. The state’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office warned in May that a $25 billion tax windfall is “not sustainable”. New York came in #4 on 2.9% GDP growth, offset by out-migration of college-educated workers. Washington, South Carolina, Delaware, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin rounded out the list, with South Carolina posting 3.1% GDP growth, tied with Florida for best in the nation.
What to Do With It
The macro backdrop is friendlier than expected. Bank of America Global Research forecasts US real GDP growth of 2.1% in 2026 and 2.3% in 2027, and a year ago more than half of economists in the CNBC Fed Survey predicted a recession that never arrived. Infrastructure, not economy, was the #1 weighted category this year, reflecting corporate demand for power and water to run data centers and advanced manufacturing.
For businesses, Texas remains the cleanest pure business case: #2 economy, Aaa credit, no state income tax. For homeowners and real estate investors in Texas, stalled prices and rising foreclosures signal genuine risk repricing. For anyone weighing a move, North Carolina is the sleeper: top-ranked economy, Aaa credit, and the biggest in-migration in the country. For equity investors, the map itself is the trade. California’s AI names, Texas’s corporate transplants, and North Carolina’s financials and healthcare anchors each represent a different bet on which state economy compounds fastest from here.
Contact [email protected] for any questions or corrections.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks