With most consumers still in holiday mode during the final week of 2021, new Houston listings fell short of last year’s numbers for a second consecutive week.
Realtors entered 1,502 properties into the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) during week 52, down 2.9% from the same time last year, according to the Houston Association of REALTORS® weekly activity snapshot.
Pending listings dropped 18%. A total of 1,417 properties went under contract during the week ended Jan. 3. This marks the steepest drop in pending listings since week 21, when they fell 17.7%.
Sellers withdrew significantly fewer property listings from the MLS than the same week in 2020. Off-market listings remained 28.2% below where they were last year, with a total of 1,695 homes going from active to off-market status versus 2,359 in 2020.
Closed sales of homes totaled 2,275 versus last year’s 2,480, an 8.3% decline. However, on a year-to-date basis, local home sales have been about 12% ahead of 2020 levels, the report noted.