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.

Other Texas cities fared well, too. Austin came in at number 12 on the Best Cities list, and Houston wasn't far behind at number 14. Houston (Harris County) added 79,400 jobs between September 2005 and 2006, the nation's largest increase in employment among the nation's 325 largest counties, according to the U.S. Census.

Opportunity has attracted among the youngest and most educated workforce in the southwest in hubs like Dallas, Austin, and Houston, but Texas is a close second to Florida in luring older workers and retirees, according to a report by Thomas, Warren + Associates for the National Active Retirement Association in Charlotte, N.C.

In 2005, Texas gained 27,000 new residents over the age of 65, bringing a total of $732 million in added income to the state. While that's less than half of Florida's gain at 68,000 new older population and $1.9 billion, what's significant is a large number of workers and retirees are not "following a job" to the state, but choosing to live there on Texas' merits.

One reason Texas is attracting young and old is the outlook for jobs. A Harris Interactive monthly survey in July found that more Texas workers are feeling confident about the job market and the future of their current employer. About 47 percent felt that the economy is coming along nicely, and a whopping 82 percent felt they were unlikely to lose their jobs.

Yet housing is struggling in Dallas. According to the North Texas Real Estate Information System which collects data from 18 MLS partners across 29 counties, the Dallas-Fort Worth hub sold 10 percent fewer homes (8,480) in August than last year. Homes are staying on the market three percent longer at 69 days than last August.

Yet median prices -- up four percent to $156,000 compared to $150,000 last year in Dallas-Fort Worth -- are bucking the trend, despite rising foreclosures in Fort Worth and mid-cities Arlington, up five percent for the first half of 2007, says RealtyTrac. Elsewhere in Texas, foreclosure filings were down more than 13 percent from mid-year 2006.

"The decline in filings and properties with filings reflects the continued steady increase in Texas residential property values, the continued stable economy and employment and the fact that Texas did not rely on extreme, exotic loan terms to the same extent as other, higher-priced markets," said Dr. Jim Gaines, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University in a newsletter.

Gaines says a great deal of the national foreclosure market is concentrated in a handful of states, primarily the previously hot markets in California, Florida, Nevada and Arizona, as well as Michigan, Ohio and Indiana, where the pullback in the automotive industry has resulted in job losses.

Texas is looking more and more like the land of opportunity.

Published: September 13, 2007

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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 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.