Sales of luxury homes in Texas jumped more than 19 percent this year, surpassing $7.5 billion in total sales dollars in 2017, according to the 2017 Texas Luxury Home Sales Report from the Texas Association of Realtors.
From October 2016 to November 2017, luxury home sales in the state grew to 4,622, a 19.1 percent increase. During the same period, the sales dollar volume of Texas homes sold for $1 million or higher was more than $7.6 billion, which is a 19.9 percent increase year-over-year.
“Despite slowing growth trends across the Texas housing market, job market and economy in 2017, Texas luxury home sales volume has continued to grow at a booming pace,” said Vicki Fullerton, TAR chair. “Rising home prices, high-end remodeling activity in major metro areas and relocation activity from out-of-state residents all continue to be drivers for Texas home sales of $1 million and higher.”
Luxury homes make up a third of statewide sales
The volume of luxury home sales in the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA was the second highest among the four largest MSAs in the state, second to Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington. Luxury home sales in the Houston area rose 12.9 percent to 1,554 home sales, which was 33.6 percent of the total luxury home sales in the state.
Total sales dollar volume in the Houston MSA was $2.6 billion, a 15.5 percent increase from last year. This made up 10.8 percent of the total residential sales dollar volume in the MSA and 34.4 percent of luxury home sales dollar volume in the state.
The MSA’s luxury home sales peaked in February 2017 and saw the largest decline in August 2017 after Hurricane Harvey. The only other month when there were year-over-year declines was in June.
Source: Texas Association of Realtors
The median price for luxury homes in the Houston MSA was the highest amongst all the MSAs at $1.37 million. This is $15,000 higher than the statewide median price for luxury homes. In Houston, the average price per square foot for a luxury home was $345, which was the second-highest price. Austin-Round Rock had the highest price per square foot for luxury homes at $400.
New luxury listings increased 12.1 percent from November 2016 to October 2017 and pending sales rose 15.1 percent. While this is slower than the statewide averages, luxury homes in Houston spent an average of 83 days on the market from January to October 2017, which is a shorter time than the other three MSAs.
“Signs of a softening housing market are historically first seen among luxury price classes, but there’s been no such evidence of a softening market among Texas luxury home sales this year,” Fullerton said. “Slowing luxury home price appreciation in Texas, however, could indicate that home price growth among the Texas housing market at large could begin to normalize in 2018, which would help curb growing housing affordability challenges throughout the state.”
