Oklahoma, the product of a series of real estate deals as complicated as they come, was born during the Panic of 1907 with its stock crash, recession and tight money.
In its centennial year, Oklahoma and its property markets endured another wobbly Wall Street, another bout with tight credit and a new specter of recession — in what might be called the Vague Sense of Dread of 2007.
Despite positive price statistics, a pall seemed to fall over the housing market as the year progressed. Maybe the weeks and weeks of rain early in the year, which bogged down builders, sucked in buyers and doused their mood.
A slowdown was due, at any rate, and came as no surprise. Home construction was off more than 10 percent from 2006. Homes sales slowed, too.
But prices held.
Oklahoma home values, in fact, continued to increase in 2007, even as formerly bubbly big-city markets, mainly on the coasts, continued to wheeze, spawning the scariest national headlines seen here since the 1980s oil bust.
Homes did lose value in 2007 — but not in Oklahoma, thanks to its stubbornly strong economy, itself a marvel when so much of the rest of the country seems to be teetering, thanks largely to state's old friend, the oil-and-gas industry.
Oklahoma housing did take some blows during the year.
The subprime mortgage mess — a flood of foreclosures in late 2006 that washed away Wall Street's means, and desire, to keep buying home loans to borrowers with sketchy credit — stung some.
Subprime loans dried up as buyers on the secondary market disappeared and lending standards tightened, and some mortgage shops dealing mainly in that part of the market did close their doors here.
The credit crunch grazed the top end of the housing market, too. Higher-risk "jumbo” loans — those too large to be considered "conventional” and "conforming,” the kind that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac like to buy, bundle and sell to investors — got scarce.
The sudden drought scotched some home sales at the closing table. The year ended with interest rates on jumbos still higher and lenders reluctant to extend the loans for fear of being unable to sell them on the securitization market.
Tight credit also spooked some sectors of commercial real estate. Some marginal deals based on securitized loans fell apart.
But investors with capital to park somewhere still pulled into Oklahoma to buy office buildings, warehouses, apartment complexes and other income-producing properties, although prices pulled back somewhat from those seen the past few record-setting years.
Here are some specific highs and lows from the real estate business in the Oklahoma City area from 2007:
• Ice damming, rare in Oklahoma and other southern climes, damaged houses at least twice, in January and again in December.
Winter storms loaded roofs with ice, which collected along eaves and around flashing, pushing moisture under shingles and causing leaks. It created another headache for homeowners who spent days without electricity and saw trees crippled by the ice.
• Spring and early-summer rains lasted for weeks and weeks, stalling construction — residential and commercial. It caused the Central Oklahoma Home Builders Association to postpone its popular Parade of Homes until fall to give builders time to finish their show homes. The delays were seen by some as an unexpected treatment for a fevered housing market that needed to slow down.
• In June, Ann Campbell, a prominent Realtor in Edmond, was sentenced to two months in federal prison, plus two years of supervised release, and fined $4,000 for conspiracy to commit wire fraud in connection with mortgage fraud in the sale of homes in Edmond's upscale Oak Tree addition.
Campbell was the most prominent of a dozen people
