While home values dropped drastically for most of the nation following the housing bubble, the oil-producing states posted housing gains. With crude oil trading at half the price of a year ago, according to nationalmortgagenews, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Wyoming and Alaska may see home prices fall six to 20 percent over the next five years. As MHProNews posted many times in the last several years, modular workforce housing and manufactured housing experienced a strong uptick in oil-producing areas of the country.

Fannie Mae Economist Eric Brescia, in a report, said if lower energy prices reduce demand for shale oil, home values will be flat in Texas in five years.

“This is going to hurt, but we won’t see a repeat of the 1980s when Texas was awash in vacant houses,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist for Moody’s Analytics Inc. in West Chester, Pa. “Going into this, most of the oil states were vastly undersupplied with housing. That’s going to cushion the blow.”

The government estimates lower oil prices have kept $700 a year in each American household. However, it will cost the energy sector about 150,000 jobs from January 2015 to March 2016, and another 150,000 workers in related industries such as pipe manufacturing, says Zandi. ##

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Article submitted by Matthew J. Silver to Daily Business News-MHProNews.