would like to hear your opinion, if you have one. thanks for these posts.
“Dear Lord, give me another boom and I promise I won’t screw it up.”
Used to see these in Montana.
Oil is closing on $50. Gas just dropped below $2 here.
Within five years, the house in Massachusetts had appreciated to about $600k, and the house in Houston had dropped to about $100k.
On the chart shown here, a huge percentage of professional services are directly related to the profit potential of oil and gas exploration and development. They are companies like Oceaneering and Halliburton. Those companies suffered in oil boon times.
I remember clearly in the ‘80’s all the Texas and Oklahoma license plates in NH where former oil field laborers were seeking construction jobs here.
NH usually has a steady economy because it does not rely on any major resource other than the results of skilled workers and educational capital.
“Experts” are predicting 100,000 jobs lost in Houston in the next six months.
Less than 4% of the entire Texas workforce is in the Oil and Gas industries! So, a HUGE drop in this area will NOT have the same effect that it did in the late 80’s.
Also, most of the workers in these boom times are NOT buying houses, they are living in man-camps, RV parks, and hotels. So, there will NOT be the huge drop in housing like in the late 80’s.
I don’t know what it’ll close at today but at least on the NASDAQ it is currently trading at $50.74.
http://www.nasdaq.com/markets/crude-oil.aspx