No, Houston housing is cheap. No one moves to a place like Houston voluntarily. Coastal California real estate can become overheated and overpriced, as it is now, but the underlying demand will always be there. Barring a major aerospace resurgence, there is nothing in Houston likely to create demand, so those cheap houses are going to stay cheap. And even at their currently low prices, they have more potential downside than upside, and will likely lose value in the event of a real estate downturn.
"Barring a major aerospace resurgence, there is nothing in Houston likely to create demand, so those cheap houses are going to stay cheap"
Continued high oil prices will drive domestic exploration and production. Housing in Houston is "cheap" as you put it, due to not having fully recovered from the "oil bust" back in the late eighties.
And, to state that no one would voluntarily move to Houston smacks of a sort of flyover-country mentality. Sure, the summer's hot and humid, as well as long. How much of the rest of the country could be similarly described, including several putatively "hot" markets? Orlando springs to mind, for one.
"No, Houston housing is cheap. No one moves to a place like Houston voluntarily. Coastal California real estate can become overheated and overpriced, as it is now, but the underlying demand will always be there. Barring a major aerospace resurgence, there is nothing in Houston likely to create demand, so those cheap houses are going to stay cheap. And even at their currently low prices, they have more potential downside than upside, and will likely lose value in the event of a real estate downturn."
Sorry. Most all who move here do so voluntarily because of the energy markets, Hi-tech, etc. Houston is fine once you figure out how to live with the weather, which is not difficult.
I live about 60 miles from work ( 1 hour drive time) and will be raising horses on my ranch, for a reasonable amount of real estate investment ( a little above average house investment). Houston is the greatest place I've lived.
And yes, your commment reflects a "flyover mentality".