PERCEPTION OR DATA? It is helpful to remember that, while the real estate industry as a whole will be affected by the national state of the economy, real estate markets are above all local. What happens in Houston DOES stay in Houston. We have a huge city, multi-faceted, and thank-goodness-for-that, not nearly oil/gas centric as it used to be! Buyers are still arriving to Houston every day and they are buying -- perception is one thing, keeping an eye on the facts/data is another.