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When people think of the American Dream, they always think about owning a home. That dream has come to a crashing reality over the last year due to the sub-prime mortgage bust. Basically, there has been an abundance of people who bought homes that they couldn’t afford, causing a large number home foreclosures and a crash in the real estate market nationwide. Not too many places have been unaffected by this trouble. But Tulsa is one place where the American Dream may still ring true.

Unlike the rest of the country, Tulsa hasn’t seen a significant decrease in the local housing market. In fact, housing in the area reached a peak in 2006 and has only gone down slightly since then. New home construction and home purchases continue unabated and experts in the area believe that the Tulsa housing market will continue to do fine despite the changes happening elsewhere in the United States.

It’s possible that Tulsa’s ability to escape the widespread housing problem is due to the fact that the city didn’t thrive in this area until well into the time when housing was becoming a problem elsewhere. It wasn’t until 2004 that Tulsa became a hotbed for new home purchases which had already been springing up throughout the rest of the country for several years. The rapid growth in real estate investment throughout the country that was followed by a significant crash just didn’t happen in Tulsa. Investment came to the city more slowly and therefore didn’t have reason to crash. In fact, in 2006 when the rest of the nation was seeing a drop in numbers, Tulsa’s housing market hit its high point.

Tulsa just might be an ideal place for new home buyers. Prices of homes in the area are far below the national average (approximately $165,000 in Tulsa as compared with over $275,000 nationwide). Additionally these prices don’t seem to be going up as quickly in Tulsa as they have elsewhere; they’ve gone up less than 5% annually in Tulsa as compared with nearly 10% annually elsewhere in the nation. And since homes in Tulsa are consistently undervalued, you get more for the money you spend on a home here than you might elsewhere in the country. Learning from the lessons that have happened to others throughout the nation, home buyers and real estate investors in Tulsa can make the most of the great market there while avoiding the problems that have caused the rest of the nation to wonder if the American Dream still exists.