Wanna Know the Weather in Dallas?

Then look at the weather in Miami. Crazy isn't it? Same goes for the real estate market. A lot of homebuyers are letting the negative news affect their decision to buy a home. I am not saying the concerns of the state of this economy aren't valid. Many people have lost tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of days. That can be scary and frustrating.
Blanche Evans recently wrote in Realty Times the following piece:

NAR expects the national median price of homes to drop to $218,200 in 2007. In Dallas, where it's warm, wide-open, and there are lots of jobs, the median home price is going up. One of the few bright spots of the retreating housing market, Dallas is beating national numbers in jobs, culture, and inflation in terms of housing appreciation. And with a median-priced home only two-thirds the price of the national median at $156,000, the city is a screaming, stomping bargain.

There's just one little problem. Dallas is moving into a financial press-led housing recession, too. Why blame the financial press? Because buyers aren't paying attention to the positives. Fear has them sitting on the sidelines just when they could score the housing touchdown of their lives.

Dallas sat out the housing boom of 2001-2006. In fact, Dallas homes appreciated below the national median for over 16 years, until this year. Recovering from the oil embargo of the 70s, the Savings and Loan crisis of the 80s and technology meltdown of the aughts, Dallas never got up off its knees. Exacerbating the problem was a squabbling, racist city council and school system. People with means high-tailed it for the suburbs, and Dallas deteriorated.

But the smell of money is in the air. Forbes magazine recently ranked Dallas-Fort Worth among the Best Cities to Live as number one in cost of living; number five for job growth, number nine both in the best cities for singles and in the culture categories.

That's great news! That's something you just don't hear in the 5 o'clock news!