It might not seem like Honolulu's economy is rosier than most big U.S. cities, especially if you've lost your job or had problems meeting a mortgage payment.

But Honolulu had the 19th best economic performance of the largest 100 U.S. cities during the second quarter, according to the latest report from the Brookings Institution's MetroMonitor program.

Honolulu was in the top 10 in several components used in coming up with the index ranking, including unemployment rate and bank-owned properties. It also was among the top 10 in change in gross metropolitan product since its pre-recession peak.

Hawai'i's capital city moved up the rankings compared with the first quarter when it had the 34th-best performance. The Brookings Institution began the quarterly index this year to chart the diversity and geographic differences in the country's economic performance.

The report found stark differences between different areas of the country, with the southern part of the nation being over-represented among worst-performing cities. The nation's midsection and parts of the inland northeast and upper southeast were cited as having good performing cities.

"Signs at the national level that job and income losses are slowing continue to mask the highly variable performance of individual metropolitan economies," said Alan Berube, Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program research director.

"While several metro areas may have reached a turning point, there are many others that still haven't touched bottom, as well as a few that have almost fully recovered."

The MetroMonitor ranking looked at several factors revolving around employment, housing and foreclosures.

Honolulu's worst performance was in the area of housing prices when it came to the change in price over the past year. Brookings found the prices slipped 3.6 percent — good for 64th worst among 100 cities.

Honolulu's highest ranking was in the area of bank-owned real estate. It was eighth best with a rate of 1.07 bank-owned properties per 1,000 mortgageable properties.