Money is Big on Texas

Texas boasts six of the top 12 residential real-estate markets in the country, says Money magazine. Houston is ranked number 12, behind San Antonio, Dallas, Fort Worth/Arlington (yeah, they broke them out), El Paso, and that southern juggernaut McAllen. They predict a 3.2 percent increase in home prices here over the next year.

Money’s handy chart gently reminds readers of the 9.6% drop between 1984 and ’85, but it includes another statistic that suggests any downturn here won’t be as catastrophic as it might in Los Angeles, for example: the median mortgage here is only 15 percent of a homeowner’s income. In L.A., that figure is 57 percent.