Oil Biz Creating Jobs and Raising Home Values

A new report from the Federal Housing Finance Agency says that U.S. counties with a significant number of jobs in the energy sector have seen a rise in home prices that is unusual in this recession.

1 minute read

December 3, 2011, 11:00 AM PST

By Tim Halbur


The study looked at changing home prices from 2006-2011 in energy-producing states. The Oklahoman says the way an "energy job" is defined is a bit problematic, in that the sizable number of white collar jobs in Tulsa created by the oil industry is overlooked (classified with "general management"):

"Home prices in counties with the higher energy employment outperformed the other counties in every state but Oklahoma. Here, high-energy counties saw home price gains of 4.8 percent while the other counties saw better gains of 5.3 percent."

Alaska, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, West Virginia and Wyoming are the other states the FHFA looked at, and they all saw a more significant increase in home prices in high-energy counties.

Saturday, December 3, 2011 in The Oklahoman

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