Joe Guinto makes the argument that it did in the  cover story in the print edition of FrontBurner this month. His thesis is that missing the boom hurt Dallas real estate prices. He begins his argument by looking at Miami:
During the boom, Miami, overall, saw prices for pre-owned homes appreciate more than 180 percent over where they were in 2000. Dallas, during the peak of the national housing boom–in June 2007–posted about a 26 percent price gain for pre-owned homes over its year 2000 prices. Miami has since sunk. Dallas, too. But Miami’s prices are still 49 percent higher than they were in 2000, whereas Dallas has seen only a 19 percent price appreciation in the same time.
Now, if I were to consider Joe’s argument as a homeowner who wants to sell his house, the facts are incontrovertable. But there’s a whole other side to the story.
I don’t want to sell. I want people to move here and buy. In fact, I want entire companies to move here. Â Let’s say a company is now headquartered in Miami. According to this calculator, the company’s employees would save 49 percent on housing costs alone if it moved to Dallas. Overall, the cost of living in Dallas is 20 percent less than Miami. That’s a fairly huge jump in net compensation — without having to pay a dime more in salary.
I would argue that our low cost of living, along with our lack of an income tax,is  our strongest selling point. We’re 37%  lower than Boston, 21% lower than Chicago, and 45% lower than San Francisco. In the case of San Francisco, also add in the 10% California income tax, and you can double your effective personal income just by moving here. (On top of that, San Francisco is cold, and it snows a lot in Boston and Chicago. But that’s not figured in.)
