Houston was always the city in the “bubble.” It was the city that, throughout the last year of financial crises, falling home values and job losses, seemed to pass by, unnoticed. Although Houston fell below the radar for the better part of year while other cities felt the worst of the recession, Houston has not gone unscathed. In fact, it has suffered many job losses and a shrinking economy.
However, Houston still manages to distance itself from other American cities of equal size. A good example is Phoenix: although both of these cities are comparable in size, Houston surges out ahead when it comes to the overall health of its real estate market.
A Comparison between Houston and Phoenix
Both of these fast-growing markets are located in the Southwest, although the comparisons end there. Houston has displayed a durability and resilience that Phoenix, or nearly any other city in the southwest United States, has managed to do.
Declines in real estate prices continue to remain relatively small in Houston, and most areas have seen steady real estate prices, even throughout the first part of the year.
Phoenix, on the other hand, has witnessed wide-spread foreclosures, declining home prices and a spike in unemployment rates, likely because of its massive growth just a couple years ago. In fact, Phoenix holds the unlucky title of being the U.S. city to see the largest, annual drop in home values. The numbers are quite shocking, actually; home values are down a whopping 35 percent from April 2008 to this year.
Houston, of course, has also seen a decline in home values, but nowhere near the decline that Phoenix has experienced.
Houston seems to have avoided much of the fallout from the recession and credit crisis because of its strong energy market, strong oil prices and the job growth that goes along with it.
Tags: Real Estate Market