If you are looking for an area that is counter to the prevailing real estate market head to Houston. While many parts of the country are looking at home prices stagnating or depreciating from their peak prices, Houston Texas is seeing home prices accelerating and those homes at the top of the market having bidding wars.

The reason is simple, Oil. Houston is the energy capital of the country. And after the devastation wrought to New Orleans last year, many of the top energy companies have relocated to Houston and demand is far outweighing supply.

“We made an offer on one that we were really excited about, but it was priced at a point where it had four other offers in one day,” Burguieres, 32, said of a $1.5 million house in the city’s River Oaks area. “Our realtor told us it went over the asking price.”
As housing prices slow in much of the U.S., homes in River Oaks are selling faster, in larger numbers and at higher prices than a year ago. Growing demand at the top end reflects strength throughout the Houston market, which is getting a lift from soaring oil prices. The fourth-largest U.S. city is known as the world’s energy capital.
“The energy business is making a lot of people wealthy,” said Mike Inselmann, president of Houston-based researcher Metrostudy. “Business is good for those folks, and they’re spending money.”
First-quarter home sales in River Oaks rose 28 percent from a year earlier, and the value of homes sold jumped 55 percent to $32.3 million, according to local real estate firm Greenwood King Properties. The median selling price was $1.2 million, up from $940,000.  via Bloomberg.com

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