In total, 76,449 single family homes were sold in the Houston area in the calendar year 2016. This is a 3% increase from 2015 and 1.3% above 2014, when the previous sales record was set. Total dollar volume for those homes amounted to a staggering $24.5 billion, an increase of 4.2%.
Inventory levels started and ended the year at 3.3 months supply, with a peak of 4 months supply in July, a boon to potential summer home buyers. The median price of a single-family home in Houston rose 2.7% to $225,903, the highest median price ever recorded in the month of December. The average home price climbed 4.3% to $294,512.
Local realtors had braced for a slow year, due to the preponderance of doom-and-gloom predictions about the economy in late 2015 and early 2016, but it turns out there was not so much cause for alarm. According to HAR Chair Cindy Hamman of Heritage Texas Properties, the saving grace for the 2016 housing market was Houston’s diversified economy and steady stream of transplants from other cities and countries. While things were tough in the oil and gas market, Houston came out ok because there are so many other major industries with a significant presence in in the city and plenty of people still flocking to Houston in search of inexpensive real estate and a strong job market.
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Source: HAR.com