According to Realtor.com, Odessa and Wichita Falls have become two of the country’s hottest housing markets. The rise is being attributed to the oil and gas boom as home prices in Odessa have spiked up more than 34 percent, year-over-year in September. “With all the engineers, truckers, and welders moving here, the number of homes on the market has plummeted by 44 percent over the past 12 months, which is pushing prices ever higher,” Realtor.com said. "In Wichita Falls, median home list prices rose more than 27 percent in the past year.“

Affordability plays a big role: Many of these places are still under $150,000,” Realtor.com said. While home prices are soaring in Odessa and Wichita Falls, home values are growing much slower in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Median sales prices in 2018 have increased by about 5 percent since last year.

“As other markets are starting to level off a bit or go down, some are playing catch-up from a bump in the road,” Joseph Kirchner, senior economist at Realtor.com, said in a statement.

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