I wanted to give all those the opportunity to discuss the statistics of Fortune Magazine's latest release on the housing bust.

In an article titled "Real Estate: Buy Sell or Hold" (Chart (http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/price_rent_ratios/)), Oklahoma City's housing cost are predicted to fall in five years from $256K to $240. However, we fair a lot better than many cities according to this chart. The thing that shocks me is they say Dallas is going to continue to see growth.

Personally, I do not believe this study, because our current housing market is continuing to show growth. We have a cheaper housing cost and property taxes are a lot less here. The only thing I could see hurting our housing market is if we were to loose another major corporation like Devon to a buyout.

FOR FOOTBALL FANS: Another article from Fortune on places to live is "Most affordable college towns".

Although for us die hard SOONERS, Norman does not make the top TEN. However, Tulsa comes in Third and OK State comes in Fourth. Way to go for two of our three major Universities. (Football Towns (http://money.cnn.com/2007/11/06/real_estate/college_football_town_index/index.htm?postversion=2007110606)).

Looking forward to your opinions.

My house has lost a bit in the last two years or so after having shot up in a big way for the previous 3. Appreciation alone is still about 30-35k more than what I paid for it though, so I'm not complaining.


*does a happy-equity dance*

In a handful of cities, our formula suggests that prices will actually rise. Home values should increase slightly in Dallas, Indianapolis, Cleveland, and a few other locales the bubble missed. In Detroit houses are so cheap - the median is around $100,000 - that even a shift in the economy from disastrous to mediocre is all that's needed to lift both rents and prices.


I think we should fall into this category ...

We didn't get the double digit appreciation like everyone else did.

I'm optimistic that our 'pop' will be much less painful than coastal cities and regional (Vegas-Phoenix) Here prices have dropped a bit and will continue to do so but I don't think they will take a steep dive.

What goes up must come down.. problem being we never really went up, so we'll have a shorter fall!

The article is really saying that home prices compared to rents are really out of whack and there needs to be an adjustment in the market to get it balanced.

We can always sell now (if buyers were buying!) and rent for the next five years. Then again, the disadvantage is that you lose your biggest tax write-off. You'd have to work it all out on paper and see if it makes sense.