Yesterday's Dallas Morning News had an article about increasing home prices in the USA. The paper is quoting Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. This is a nationally recognized authority on home pricing.
It would appear that the Dallas area is one of the nation's leaders in price increases. Perhaps more importantly, it is solid steady growth. Two markets that lead the Dallas area is Miami and Las Vegas. Of course these two markets were severely damaged during the last real estate recession. They had a lot farther to come back than Dallas. Dallas stayed sensible.
On the average, the Dallas area home prices increased 7.4% over last year. If you had a $200,000 home in 2013, it is now worth $214,800 this year. That equates to $1,233.33 per month. If you had $200,000 invested in a long term CDs at 3%, you would be making around $500 per month. If you had $200,000 in your checking account, go buy a house.
Of course the real story is the solid growth of the Dallas area. We, in Rowlett, are a part of that story. I think Rowlett has something to sell. I don't know many towns in the area that front on a 23,000 acre lake. If we successfully sell Rowlett, the inflation rate will be higher, our tax base will be stronger, and our tax rate becomes more acceptable.
HOWEVER...a word of caution. Make sure the data you are analyzing is accurate. Also, you can not cherry pick the data to make the story sound better than it really is. Said another way, use your damned head. If so, we all will do fine..