Available homes have been going fast in Houston lately, with sales climbing for the last 29 consecutive months. In the month of October inventory levels were down to 3.1 months of supply, compared to 4.4 months of supply at the same time last year. For the uninitiated, months of supply is a real estate term that indicates how long it would take for every house on the market to be sold if no new houses were listed. Compare that to the national average of 5.0 months and it’s easy to see that Houston has a competitive real estate market! In addition to this measure of growth, Houston home sales in October reached a record total dollar volume. Home sales rose 13.5% year-over-year, with over 6,000 closings on single family homes.
The median price of a single family home has risen 8.9% to $177,500. The average price increased to $239,773, up 7.9% from last year. Both of these are record highs for October sales in Houston. In fact, every segment of the housing market saw increases except the under-$80,000 market. The highest increases were seen in homes priced from $150,000 to $500,000.
According to HAR Chairman Danny Frank, “Home sales have shown no sign of letting up, which illustrates the strength of the Houston economy and its continues job growth. Unfortunately, the home buying frenzy has sparked a recent wave of scams in which for-sale properties are falsely advertised in online listings as rentals with scam artists trying to take advantage of unsuspecting consumers. HAR urges consumer to always work with a Realtor and remember that a deal that sounds too good to be true most likely is too good to be true.”
Foreclosure property sales reported in the HAR MLS system fell 46.9% compares to this time last year. Currently foreclosures make up only 7.5% of all property sales, down from 19.6% at the beginning of the year. The median price of foreclosures also rose .9% up to $85,706.
Sales of all property types in October totaled 7,322, a 14.7% increase over last October. Total dollar volume for properties sold rose to $1.7 billion, a 26.7% increase over last year’s $1.3 billion sales. Total dollar volume for the year so far is up to $17.7 billion, surpassing even 2007’s record setting total dollar volume of $16.6 billion. Numbers are up in Townhouse/condominium sales and the lease property market as well.
As the market becomes increasingly competitive, there’s never been a better time to list your home and seek out the home of your dreams while it is still available and affordable.
For more information, please visit: www.har.com