The Houston market remains steady, having weathered the energy downturn and now slowly recovering. Year to date sales up 1.2% compared to this point in 2015. We now have a 3.8 month supply of housing for sale, compared to 3.5 months a year ago. The national average is 4.6 months, so our market is generally tighter than most. We currently have 37,955 properties for sale, up 11.6% from October 2015.
The median price also continues to go up, where half the houses sell for more, and half for less. The October median sales price was $219,990, which is 4.8% more than a year ago, and indicating that prices are still increasing though moderately. Pending sales are up 10.5% from a year ago, indicating that the market has forward momentum.
Sales of houses priced under $80,000 were down 24.7 % from October 2015, as a result of little inventory available in this price range. Sales of $80,000 to $150,000 houses were down 23.7 %, again a sign of too little inventory rather than market softness. We continue to find that entry level priced homes attract multiple offers the first few days on the market. Most buyers are using FHA loans, and so the tighter appraisals are limiting what sellers can get for the property compared to what buyers are willing to pay.
Houses selling for $150,000 to $250,000 saw a 12 % increase in number sold. It seems to me that above about $225,000, its becoming more of a buyer’s market.
Houses selling for $250,000 to $500,000 increased 9.5%, while those $500,000 and above decreased by 2.0%. Certain product such as inner loop townhomes are generally selling at 10 to 15% discounts to asking prices / what the sellers expected to get.
The number of single family home leased through HAR.com went down 1.3% from October 2015, and the average rent decreased to $1728, just slightly down from a year ago.
