This week I attended an Economic Forecast luncheon put on by the Greater Houston Building Association. The speaker was Mike Inselman with Metrostudy, and the news was good!
As you may have noticed, Houston is experiencing huge job and population growth. From November 2011 to November 2012, we added 85,000 new jobs. This is more than any other big city in country. By November of 2011, our economy reached the recovery phase as all our lost jobs were replaced. Since then, we’ve added 90,000 more! The best way to forecast a housing market is to look at job growth.
The downturn in housing has created some lingering fear among potential home buyers. That, coupled with more stringent lending rules, has created the strongest rental market we’ve seen in history. If you’ve been considering purchasing investment property to rent out, now would be the time to do it!
According to HAR, in the past 6-9 months, there has been a more than 39% rise in the number of closings, but the number of listings has decreased. There is currently only 3 months of inventory in Houston citywide listed on the market. Of course, in the Heights, we are experiencing considerably less than that. With listings down, sales are up and prices are going through the roof.
If you’re ready to take advantage of the best seller’s market we’ve seen in 12 years, call me today!
For more information, please visit: http://www.metrostudyreport.com/national-housing-market/houston-housing-market-2013-the-way-i-see-it