RALEIGH – If a recession hits (and the whispers are getting louder), the Triangle isn’t a bad place to be.

Both Cary and Raleigh are ranked in the top 10 “most recession-resistant” cities, according to SmartAsset’s recently release report, nabbing the No.8 and No.9 spots respectively.

Frisco, Texas, meanwhile, came in first place, with four other cities in the Lone Star State also making the top 10 – Plano (3), Denton (4), Austin (5) and Lubbock (7).

Durham wasn’t far behind in the No. 18 spot.

“All three cities [Cary, Raleigh, Durham] rank in the better half of the study for the three categories we considered: employment, housing and social assistance,” SmartAsset spokesperson Kara Gibson told WRAL TechWire.

These cities stand out for their change in median home values during the last recession, she added.

During the Great Recession (2007-2010), median home values in Cary, Raleigh and Durham increased by 4.5 percent, 7.6 percent and 2.4 percent, respectively.

Compare that to a 13.7 percent decrease on average across the 264 cities in the study.

“These cities also perform well with relatively low percentages of the population relying on public assistance,” Gibson said. “That figure is 1.4 percent or lower in Cary, Raleigh and Durham.”

Though the national unemployment rate currently sits at a historic low of 3.5 percent, there are signs of economic vulnerability.

On Monday, stocks nosedived again in the wake of more bad news released to the coronavirus outbreak. Some analysts are now warning a global recession is “almost inevitable.”

To find the most recession-resistant cities, SmartAsset examined nine metrics related to employment, housing and social assistance, looking both at recent figures and changes during the last recession.

Other key findings: Bottom-ranking cities saw unemployment rates spike and home values dip during the last recession.

Across the 10 worst ranking cities in the study, the unemployment rate from 2007 through 2010 increased by an average of 8 percent, compared to a 5.2 percent average increase across all 264 cities.

The same 10 cities saw an average decrease of 26.9 percent in home values during the same period, compared to a 13.7 percent decrease across all cities in our study. Among those 10, unemployment spiked the most in Detroit, Michigan and home values fell the most in San Bernardino, California.

More coronavirus fallout: Global economies may slide into recession