Forbes.com in conjunction with Moody's Rating Service has evaluated the Top25 and Worst 25 housing markets in the U.S. There ratings considered the job market, inventory levels of homes, foreclosures, and previous history of inflated run ups in prices. Most of the Top 25 did not participate in the shark feeding frenzy that saw sky high prices, and ridiculous sub-prime financing to back it up. Both of Oklahoma's major metropolitan markets were in the Top 25. Both Oklahoma City and Tulsa are expected to have a very small sell off in 2009. I don't think anyone is looking for markets to appreciate overall, although a case could be made for pockets of the cities having a slight upward trend. In the case of Oklahoma, Forbes predicted 2010 to trend upward. Oklahoma did not participate in the bubble housing market, and since 2001, the gains in appreciation have been single digit but steady. Inventory is relatively low, and the job market is excellent with 3.5% unemployment in Oklahoma City.
Of the cities in the bottom 25, the lion share goes to the Florida market that was especially hard hit with investors speculators looking for quick bucks, but they didn't know how to play musical chairs very well, so when the music stopped, they were out. In Florida markets like Miami, Orlando, Cape Coral, Fort Lauderdale, Bradenton, and Jacksonville all showed 26% to 36% declines in 2009 with no recovery even possible until late 2010 at the earliest. Naturally Las Vegas, Los Angeles and Phoenix are also included. The good news is that in Oklahoma a 2% change is considered the overall worst case scenario for this year. Let's hope that the new Obama Administration and Congress can come up with a plan to lessen the impact. But to all of my Oklahoma real estate investors, aren't you glad your here and not there.
For those who see this old post on Oklahoma City market conditions in 2009, this was after the real estate meltdown and showed that we had a normal recession and not a loss of value in real estate. Oklahoma City real estate market conditions remain steady just like 2009 so this is still the dependable market for consistent real estate value.
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