Interestingly, the area did not experience the housing boom and bust that occurred in much of the nation. Whereas national house prices rose by 89 percent between 2000 and 2006, prices in Oklahoma City rose by only 35 percent. In addition, house prices in Oklahoma City have been flat since 2006, a sharp contrast to the large drop in national home prices.
But even though the vacancy rates in Oklahoma City are not a direct result of the housing boom and bust, it may be that newer solutions developed for “housing boom” and “low demand” areas can be combined with traditional community development policy tools to help solve a problem that developed over decades.