[St_Thomas_Aquinas]

Around 1984, my friend's dad, a doctor, got a new job in Houston. He sold his $200k Massachusetts house and moved to Houston where he bought a house for $1 million.

Within five years, the house in Massachusetts had appreciated to about $600k, and the house in Houston had dropped to about $100k.

[thackney]

That was certainly a hard time for the area. It is much more diversified now. I first moved to Houston in 1989.

[Clara Lou]

Around that same time, a family from California moved to our small town here in Texas. While still in California, where land prices were booming, they bought a very large, old 2-story home that would have sold for five times as much (at least) in California. They were sure they had a bargain and bought the house at a price just about 3 times its value. They were prize suckers, thanks to the local realtors who manipulated the deal. (I wouldn’t be surprised if the realtors financed the purchase or set it up with one of the local banks.)

Sounds like that’s what happened to your Massachusetts friend. Houston has never been Detroit.

[VerySadAmerican]

I partied during the early 80s in Texas then starved through the late 80s and early 90s. It was scary times. Lots of boarded up stores.

[Ditter]

If the house in Houston is located on several acres of Buffalo Bayou property it is probably worth $6 million now.