Fox25 - Falling oil prices may affect Metro home prices
**This article was pulled from Fox25. You can find the original link here
With our State's oil industry concerned about low gas prices, confidence in the housing market could be shifting. Some economists worry that home prices could start to drop in Oklahoma City by the end of 2015. "My guess is that this is going to be a sustained decrease in the price of oil," said Oklahoma City University Professor of Economics Jonathan Willner.
Willner says with that sustained decrease comes the potential for economic harm. He said he saw the negative impact the oil bust in the 1980's had, and knows it could happen again."What we've got is a rapid escalation of the price of crude oil. This is followed by a rapid increase in exploration and expansion of production capacity. This is followed by decrease in price and a massive decrease in employment and income," he said.
Real Estate firm Trulia posted an article on its website making very similar statements. It expects our home values to start dropping by the end of this year. "We certainly hope that they don't," said Keller Williams realtor Kirsten McIntyre. "2013 and 2014 were incredible years for real estate here in Oklahoma." McIntyre doesn't buy into the doom and gloom outlook. She says home values are looking great for 2015 and beyond. But she admits, she has no crystal ball to tell her exactly how it will all play out."We really are kind of waiting. It's a wait and see game to see what's going to happen."Willner says it all depends on how many layoffs oil companies have to make. The more people who are out of a job in the Metro, the worse our economy will become."When you lose your job, you can't make your mortgage payments. Therefore the houses go on the market, but because nobody's got a job, there's nobody to buy them. Prices are going to go down," said Willner. The Trulia article said the negative impact of falling oil prices on home prices will be concentrated in oil producing markets like Oklahoma, Texas and Louisiana.
