For those of you still basking in seller's markets across the country, enjoy it while it lasts, because your market could switch to a buyer's market overnight, and it could be brutal.

Realty Times' home base Dallas is experiencing just such a market. Like other metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs,) Dallas has been on a housing roll, but that has come to a sudden stop, according to local Realtors.

Realtors are telling Realty Times that "the wind died." It's not that buyers are giving sellers a tough time - they're not out looking at houses at all. Houses that commanded multiple offers six years ago are going without showings today. And older houses? Unless they are in perfect condition, they aren't being shown at all, unless the sellers are giving them away.

With an approximately nine percent unemployment rate, and a moralistic mayor making things worse, the city is overprimed to react fearfully to news that terrorists are planning a big attack in the U.S., that there's a housing bubble, that inflation is about to return us to the days of 21 percent interest rates, and so on.

Unfortunately, some or all of the above may be true. Yet housing booms continue in other areas, as buyers try to get in on the last of the great interest rates. What's wrong here?

We've got the sunbelt, we've got the builders, we have some of the biggest yards in America. We have some of the most affordable housing of any large MSA. What's wrong with this picture?

For one thing, we have a mayor that doesn't understand a simple rule of bizness - that all economy is tied to jobs.

I don't want to get off on a rant here, but on top of a "no smoking" ban in restaurants, a major convention center remodel without a major hotel adjoining it, some of the worst performing schools in the nation, racial tensions due to the almost equally powerful Hispanic, African American and remaining English Puritans vying for power, and Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones trying to get the citizens to pay for a new stadium for his billionaire self and millionaire players, the mayor saw to it that one of the best convention experts in the city was booted out of his job for taking a prospect to a (gasp) topless bar.

He should have been given a medal instead. Dallas has no other natural resources like oceans or mountains. It is one of the top four plastic surgery centers of the nation, so there is plenty for conventioneers to see if they want to, even if the topless clubs are a $30 cab ride away from the convention center. And for the wives who come along, Dallas is one of the three major fashion centers in the nation, but now that Neiman-Marcus is in every major MSA from Las Vegas to San Francisco to Boca Raton, it's not such a big deal for folks to come see the crumbling downtown "original" store, which is hardly walking distance from the convention center anyway. Who wants to plan a convention when there isn't a restaurant or bar within a brief walking distance either? And there's a new convention center in nearby Grapevine that has taken care of every one of those problems. It's new, it's fun, it's huge, and it's kicking Dallas in the rear with convention dates booked through the next ten years.

Downtown has had a little growth, but the majority of the inner city is still an eyesore where foreign investors have been allowed to buy office buildings and leave the windows boarded up. Who wants to transfer employees to a place that looks like a ghost town?

And it's not a money issue. Downtown is being supported by new growth in nearby Uptown, but when new residents want streetlights to feel safe for being urban pioneers the city said no. Ironically, there is a building code that requires developers to install trees, but there is no code for street lights. These residents are paying impact fees to live in Uptown, but not getting the city services they want.

Is it any surprise that Uptown now has a year's supply of housing inventory on hand?

And the smoking thing shouldn't be a big deal, but it's not like Dallas is New York City, where people are going to put up with it because there is no other city like it in the world. Most public places already had that worked out with smoking sections. One fifth of adults smoke, and when you're planning conventions, would you pick a city where twenty percent of your paying customers aren't going to feel comfy or welcome? Convention traffic is down everywhere because of the terrorist attacks three years ago. The non-smoking ban is yet another reason convention planners are seldom picking Dallas these days.

To be honest, the only reason people want to come here is because they have to. Dallas is a business center, but only because we built a great railroad station 135 years ago and a huge international airport 30 years ago. It's warm, there's all that prairie land that has been turned into golf courses, and it's halfway between the east and west coasts. Dallas is a hub, but it's one that makes people feel snubbed.

No wonder we are in a buyer's market.

Even the National Association of Realtors doesn't want to come here - Dallas is at the top of its list of cities it will never choose again to stage its annual convention.

It's not all the mayor's fault, of course. She thinks she is doing the right thing to build a better, cleaner city, and if people weren't losing jobs, that might be noble, but right now, it looks like poor timing to pick a fight with smokers, convention planners or anyone else. Restaurant owners are begging her to reconsider, as dining out, once a staple of the Dallas economy with more restaurants per capita than New York City is declining.

I wonder how things would work if a few Realtors I know were in charge of the city council and the mayor's office instead of the bickering panel we have now. We'd have blue-ribbon schools, job growth, and better city services because Realtors know that's the kind of place where most people want to live. That's where Realtors throw their support where they can, behind the communities that are doing it right.

But not enough Realtors are involved in city politics, and they certainly aren't involved in Dallas the way they could be. What a difference it would make if they were.

Published: June 3, 2004

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Blanche Evans is the award-winning senior editor of Realty Times, the Internet's leading independent real estate news service. She is featured daily on the Realty Times Video Network in the "Realty Viewpoint" segment. Blanche has been named one of the "25 Most Influential People In Real Estate" by REALTOR Magazine, and has been twice recognized as a "notable." In 2005, she was named "Top Reporter Covering the NAR" by Delahaye-Bacon's. Blanche is a renowned author of five real estate books. Her newest, Bubbles, Booms and Busts: Make Money In Any Real Estate Market, McGraw-Hill, was rave-reviewed by The New York Times. She was also selected from hundreds of real estate experts to contribute to Donald Trump's book, Trump: The Best Real Estate Advice I Ever Received: 100 Top Experts Share Their Strategies, Rutledge Hill Press, and is featured on page 68. Order Now Review - Honors In 2006, Blanche was selected among scores of candidates to author two consumer real estate guidebooks for the National Association of Realtors: The NAR Guide to Home Buying, and The NAR Guide to Home Selling, Wiley & Sons. She is currently planning two new books for the NAR and its members.       Known for her keen insight into real estate industry issues and for her ability to make complex subjects easy to understand, Blanche is a sought-after keynote and continuing education speaker. Real estate organizations from MLSs, to brokerages, to franchisors, to associations hire her to provide up-to-the-minute analysis of real estate industry news and advice on how to improve revenues. Her passionate delivery, peppered with stinging wit, is a huge hit with audiences and fans. Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors, Blanche Evans, Richard Courtney, president 2007, GRAR "The GNAR membership meeting last week featured Blanche Evans as the keynote speaker. Her comments and insights resonated extremely well with those in attendance and we have had many requests for copies of her PowerPoint Presentation. She was a terrific part of the membership meeting and convention program!" - Don Klein, CEO Greater Nashville Association of Realtors Coverage from WSMV, Nashville - 8-14-2007 That Interview Guy - Get Inside The Head Of Today's Generation 2007 AE Institute Session - To purchase 2006 AE Institute Session - Parts 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 HouseValues Mastermind call - Parts 1 2 Blanche's fireside chat with Jeremy Conaway, HAR - Click here. To contact Blanche, email her at . For more articles by Blanche, click here.