[curt]

Texas is just plain run well. The state barely had a recession because they had common sense regulations that stop the housing from skyrocketing in the first place. It takes days not months or years to get building permits. Texas is a perfect example of how the country should be run as a whole.

[tdees40]

Its resilience during the recession at least has something to do with oil. At least acknowledge that possibility.

[saryant]

A large part of it is because Texas had extraordinarily strict lending standards, enacted after the oil bust of the 1980's. That, plus our already affordable housing, meant that Texas didn't have a property bubble burst in 2008.

[conover]

I'm torn on the fire code thing (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/10/us/after-plant-explosion-t...). It's one thing to eschew regulation but fire codes?