Morning Roundup: Home is where the equity is edition

Good morning, Houston. Sure, the national economy may be going to hell in a handbasket, but look on the bright side: Houston's housing market is remaining pretty strong, so at least you homeowners have something of value! According to a new report, the median home value in Houston fell just $500 between the end of the third quarter 2007 and the end of the year, to $119,300 from $119,800 — still a gain of more than $4,000 over the 2006 year-end average of $115,700. Oh, one other thing: People from more expensive markets are apparently discovering that things are cheaper here. "Areas in Texas, which we have long characterized as undervalued, are now attracting significant migration at the expense of much higher-cost metros of California or Florida," the report said. Oh, good.

>> Primary confusion: As you've probably hard, a bunch of Democrats turned out to vote and caucus in Texas yesterday — in fact, some people are saying there might have been too many for the Texas Democrats' bizarre delegate selection process. First of all, many of the polling locations were swamped Tuesday: "It's just a question of physics. If 700 people show up at a poll at 6 p.m. and all want to vote, it's just a function of how many can run through the system," Harris County voter registration director George Hammerlein told KPRC. And then there were the caucuses, which by most accounts were a mess: Some of them began late, some didn't end until Wednesday, and many people reportedly left their precinct caucuses because it was taking so long to sign in. Harris County Democratic Party officials estimate that 100,000 people turned out to caucus in the county, five times the expected number — and that led to long nights for people like Mika Williams, who arrived at Nimitz High School to vote and caucus at 6:30 p.m. and didn't leave until just before students started arriving for school Wednesday. State Rep. Sylvester Turner, a Democrat, called on the state party to abandon the primary-caucus process; it's not clear whether that will happen, but it's obvious that this year's election is piquing voter interest. "Look at the tremendous turnout we had," Hector Nieto, a state Democratic Party spokesman, said. "This was definitely a learning process for us."

>> Council OKs land buy: City Council on Wednesday approved spending $15.5 million on five downtown blocks that might end up being the site of a new Houston Dynamo stadium and voted to obtain a sixth block through a land swap, the Chronicle reports. We say the land might be the stadium site because the city hasn't officially said a stadium will be built there — if negotiations with the Dynamo fall through, the land could be used for something else, like private development. But, if a stadium is built, officials stress that it won't take money away from something important: "It will not cost us any police officers or fire fighters," Mayor Pro Tem Adrian Garcia said. "We will not put any entertainment in front of public safety." Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck was one of three council members to vote against the purchase; she said the deal gets the city government too involved with economic development and will set a bad precedent. "I cannot support this because I believe this is poor public policy to vote for something that lacks specificity," she said.

>> Today's weather: Hope you enjoyed yesterday's beautiful weather, because it's going to be in short supply as a cold front moves through the area today. Expect a 70 percent chance of rain this afternoon with a high around 67 and gusty winds; tonight, the storms will continue as temperatures drop into the low 40s. Tomorrow: cold.

>> In brief: Oil! ... HISD bus, 18-wheeler collide on East Loop ... Spate of dolphin deaths worries officials ... Yolanda Adams under investigation by IRS ... Relics of the past in Houston's new cathedral