I have continuously maintained that buying a house in Houston (without renters) is a bad investment for a single person. People always act schocked and dismayed. But but but but, they say, interest rates are low (mine is 5 1/8%). Houses are always good investments. And there's the tax advantage. Even people in Houston look at me in disbelief when I say my house is a bad investment. I was renting a 900 sqft apartment overlooking a beautiful marina for $650 a month (same apartment is now $750), for comparison. I pay more than that a month in interest, property tax, and insurance (plus some) on my mortage.. Maybe for people with families, a large apartment equals a mortgage payment, but it wasn't the case for me.

Well, here's proof, a list of house appreciation, annually, in Houston from 2002 to 2007. This is not just the "bad" year we've just had folks, this is overall, even including the good years back when house prices were skyrocketing in other citiies.

My neighborhood is South Shore Village. 2.2% average annual appreciation. Do this math in your head. My property tax is 3.5% (pretty standard for this area) and I pay over 1% annually in home owners insurance. That's 4.5% out and only 2.2% in. And that's not even considering inflation or interest paid. I bought my house for nearly exactly the average square foot price listed in this article (just a little less) and expect to sell it for the same.

My neighborhood isn't atypical either. Just look at the others in the Clear Creek school district (that's the suburban area around NASA) or Friendswood. Its all the same, within a percentage point or so. With the exception of some waterfront property which is experiencing a small boom from the growth of condos, but I don't expect that to last through the next hurricane.

The good news is, I like living in a house, maybe there's something to be said for that.