I'm in Texas and I'm not untouched by all this. Not feelings wise, I couldn't care less about the law breakers, but we end up paying for preventative measures. Right now you can say that house prices are up for many reasons but I recall a series called Half Price Paradise that had people moving from places like New York to the Carolinas because home prices were so low. We bought a house that was valued at 105k and three houses down just months later a house was listed for 175k. It sold within DAYS for full price. That's when price per square foot was $80, now it's $150. Zillow and other corps hadn't started meddling hardcore yet. It was the flight from Cali and NY. BTW, Houston.