The development of North Sea oil transformed the Aberdeen economy and created a rare example of recent, focused, and rapid urban growth in the UK. First, a comparative static view of housing-market adjustments induced by just such an exogenous shock is set out. This leads on to a consideration of the dynamics of urban change through the specification of a stages model. This model is examined by the analysis of local house-price trends, new house-building, and residential mobility patterns in Aberdeen during the 1970s. -Authors