Home sales in Houston are mimicking the city's NASA space program.
NASA may conduct training and space research at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston, but the area’s real estate may soon be joining those astronauts if it keeps posting year-over-year sales like it did in August.
According to data just released by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), single-family home sales increased 30.2 percent in August from a year ago, with sales in every price range experiencing gains.
Although the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit in 2010 – a development that led to a slump in housing sales – could be blamed for distorting the August 2011 data, Carlos P. Bujosa, the chairman of HAR, said that August 2009 data eases those claims.
“The Houston real estate market’s vital signs appear to be quite healthy as we move from the summer buying season into the fall, but we must remain mindful that we are still comparing 2011 home sales to that period last year when transactions slowed dramatically after the tax credit expired,” Bujosa said. “It is encouraging to see how well the August numbers stack up against August of 2009, which was the last ‘normal’ year for our housing market.”
Compared to August 2009, last month’s 2011 single-family home sales are up 10.4 percent.
Additional data included: single-family median home prices rose 0.7 percent to $217,047; sales for all property types increased 29 percent; and total dollar volume increased 29.4 percent to $1.34 billion.
Housing may be tough on the national scene, but it’s looking pretty good down in Houston.