Crude price slide hits US oil capital of Houston hard

Prices for mansions in Houston’s swankiest neighbourhood have tumbled in lock step with crude prices. The Houston Opera has offered free season tickets to patrons who lost their jobs in the oil bust. A fancy restaurant offers cut-price dinners.

Twenty months into the worst oil price crash since the 1980s, well-heeled residents of the world’s oil capital are among the hardest hit largely because tanking energy firm shares make up much of oil and gas executives’ compensation.

In River Oaks, a neighbourhood of palatial mansions and lush gardens, the average sales price of a home has tumbled to $1.3m (€908,000) from $2m in the middle of 2014 when oil began its more than 70% slide.