Source: Fortune —
Back in the early 2000s, housing speculators got suckered into believing that a shortage of supply would continue to propel U.S. home prices skyward, at a double-digit pace. Those investors, who were often home flippers, assumed the best bang for their buck would be in fast-growing Sunbelt cities—and that rush of investment meant places like Las Vegas and Miami got crushed even harder when what turned out to be a housing bubble ultimately burst and spurred the 2008 financial crisis.
The Sunbelt housing meltdown had one big exception: Texas.
While zealous lenders across the nation were allowing borrowers to take on mortgages while putting little to nothing down, Texas stuck with its conservative lending practices. That hard line helped the state escape the sharp 2008 home price correction and subsequent foreclosure crisis that plagued Sunbelt markets like Phoenix and Tampa after the crash.
Fast-forward to today, and the U.S. is once again amid a housing boom that has set home prices out of reach for many buyers. U.S. home prices have risen 19.8% over the past year, which is more than four times greater than income growth during the same period. But this time around Texas is front and center of the surging cost in housing.
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