The Houston housing market seems prone for takeoff, given its skyrocketing home sales in October.
By Peter Ricci
Single-family home sales surged in Houston in October, rising 32.7 percent from the year before and pushing the Bayou City’s housing inventory to just a 4.4 month-supply, a level not seen since December 2001.
It was another rock-solid month of real estate for Houston, which has been earning national attention for its uniformly strong housing market.
Houston Housing Roars Ahead in October
Indeed, the milder weather seems to have had little impact on the Houston housing market:
- Along with single-family homes, sales of townhouses and condos were extremely strong, increasing 41.6 percent from last year.
- Sales for all property types in October totaled 6,457, which is a 35.1 percent increase from October 2011; similarly, the total dollar volume of properties sold rose 47.2 percent year-over-year to $1.4 billion.
- The higher dollar volume was spurred on by two factors: rising home prices and skyrocketing demand for luxury properties.
- For home prices, both the average price and median price for single-family homes reached their highest level ever for an October.
- And for luxury properties, demand for Houston housing increased along with the price: homes priced $150,000 to $249,999 saw sales increase 42.9 percent; homes priced $250,000 to $499,999 saw a sales increase of 48.7 percent; and finally, for homes priced $500,000 to $1 million and above, home sales rose 53.4 percent.
Wayne A. Stroman – Houston’s Housing Market Linked with Economy
Such numbers, explained Wayne A. Stroman, the chairman of HAR, are directly related to Houston’s strong economy, and the falling housing inventory offers great opportunities for housing construction.
“Our active real estate market reflects the general health of the Houston economy, most notably the addition of close to 96,000 new jobs over the past year, according to the latest Texas Workforce Commission employment report,” Stroman said. “The inventory squeeze has definitely created fertile ground for homebuilders.”