Make fun of living in Midland, Texas all you want, but it’s now the hottest housing market in the U.S., thanks to oil and gas exploration in the Permian Basin.
The boomtown tops the U.S. home market list released recently by Realtor.com. There’s such a demand for housing that it takes a median of 28 days to sell a home in the city. Midland is the top selling market for the second straight month.
Why not? Those oil and gas employees have to have someplace to live. Not to mention, the expansion of energy-related businesses in and around Midland and Odessa has created still more pressure for more housing in the western part of Texas.
Next-door neighbor Odessa is ranked 17th nationally according to Realtor.com while Dallas-Forth Worth is 19th among the nation’s 20 hottest housing metros.
Sorry, Oklahoma City did not make the top 20. While Midland, Texas number one, Boston was number two, San Francisco 3, Columbus, Ohio 4 and Vallejo, California was 5.
Realtor.com says median home sales listing prices nationwide were up 8 percent year over year in May.
Across the country, 557,000 home listings hit the market in May. That’s the largest number in one month since July 2015.