In an August 17, 2007 Dallas Business Journal article, Dallas developer Craig Hall said, “it’s over,” he said of Dallas-Fort Worth’s recent property boom. “It’s gone. It’s done. “It won’t be a temporary thing,” he continued. “It’s a permanent change in the pricing of real estate. It’s a permanent change in the market.”   Additionally, he said, “Overnight, the whole world changed,” Hall said, “and it’s not going to change back.”   No one else came forward and publicly supported his assessment in the summer of 2007.  Today, over a year later The Dallas Morning News in a front page article titled “Vultures set to swoop on ailing assets,”  Mr. Hall and others discuss real estate opportunities created by the credit crisis.

This is bad news for for Texas tax rolls.  When residential and commercial real estate loose value, tax rolls shrink.  Pressure increases on political subdivisions to increase tax rates.  The good news for Texas property taxpayers is that they should see lower property tax valuations.  The problem will be the taxes they pay due to future tax rates.