Oklahomaâ€™s Housing Market Going Strong

The value of your home may be going up. Home values are predicted to drop nationwide with places like Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles taking the biggest hits. But that's not the case in Tulsa.

Monday, April 16th 2007, 4:00 pm

By: News On 6

The value of your home may be going up. Home values are predicted to drop nationwide with places like Las Vegas, Miami and Los Angeles taking the biggest hits. But that's not the case in Tulsa. News On 6 anchor Craig Day reports that Tulsa is near the top of the list for homeowners expected to make the most money off their investment in the coming year.

The National Association of Realtors predicts the price of existing U.S. homes will fall slightly this year. But according to Fiserv Lending Solution's predictions, it won't happen in Tulsa. That comes as no surprise to realtor Darryl Baskin.

"While the rest of the country is seeing a slump, we're often trudging right along and seeing increases," he said.

Baskin is an area realtor and hosts radio and television real estate programs. He says most years homes in Tulsa appreciate 3-5%. That's right in line with a new analysis that predicts Tulsa home values will go up 4.3% from this April to next April, the second best market in the nation.

Many of those housing markets expected to see drops over the next 12 months have seen dramatic increases over the past few years. In fact, in many of those markets the home values have doubled over five years. But in those markets the bubble has seemed to have burst. Tulsa on the other hand has seen a steady, gradual increase in home values.

â€œThe drawback is we don't have people here who are making hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, but that's more of a lottery mentality. Here you have people who buy homes, we rarely see it go backwards, and we don't have to deal with the upheaval that the bubble would create," Baskin said.

Baskin predicts the Tulsa area will have a slight increase in demand and slight decrease in supply over the next year, which translates into a stable market.

"As long as it doesn't go too far one way or the other there's a good deal for buyers and sellers, and that's where people win," he said.

Oklahoma City homeowners are expected to see their homes appreciate in value over the next year by 3.1%. The biggest gainer is McAllen, Texas at 9.8%. The biggest loser is Las Vegas at -8.9%.