It's certainly not news that times have been tough across America's cities in recent years. The Great Recession may be officially over, but many communities are still suffering a painful hangover.

The truth is, there are myriad explanations for why these MSAs have fared the way they have. But take a look at the top performers overall and you'll see a lot of locations closer to the nation's midsection than the coasts - Indiana, Texas, North Dakota, Wyoming, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, to name a few. That generally holds true among the top locations in the three factors lists as well.

Otherwise, though, these top locations advanced for a variety of reasons. Some of the locations highest on the list are experiencing explosive growth in extraction of energy from shale or from the Gulf of Mexico. Green energy developments are fueling growth elsewhere. Other communities are benefiting from the "comeback" of U.S. manufacturing and the presence of major employers that have cracked the puzzle of exporting to those parts of the world where growth remains hot. Still others have top employers cashing in on life sciences or technology innovations. More than likely these locations are home to universities providing a young, prime work force and technology-transfer skills.

Read on to see the Top 100 MSAs ranked based on overall results, as well as for a closer look at a dozen locations whose recent economic successes we chose to highlight...