The Houston Association of Realtors reports this month that despite the winter storm that left many without power, February home sales didn’t slow the sale of single-family homes in the metro area, making it the ninth straight month of improved sales. 

For the first time since March 2020, home-price growth in urban areas surpassed that of suburban and rural locations.

“Despite the drop in home sales for February — which I would attribute to historically-low inventory — the market is still outperforming pre-pandemic levels.” NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun

The median sale price of a home in Houston was $275,000, a 4.8% increase month over month and an 11.3% increase over last year.

Eighty-eight percent of all homebuyers said they used an agent as a source of information during their search, and 91% of millennials age 22 to 30 said the same.

Brokers remain optimistic despite low inventory of homes, the ongoing pandemic and iBuyers.

It is not “first comes love, then comes marriage,” but for many women, “first comes homeownership,” according to First American Chief Economist Odeta Kushi.

Nationally, homeowners with mortgages saw their home equity increase by 16.2% year-over-year from the fourth quarter of 2019.

It also ranks among the top 10 states in the economy and fiscal stability categories.

Lenders issued $1.06 trillion worth of mortgages in the fourth quarter of 2020 with refis contributing to the boost.

“More jobs are very likely, due to the near certain passage of the $1.9 trillion stimulus package and from two million vaccinations per day,” National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun said in a release.

The increase follows a decline earlier in February that cut the number of homeowners in forbearance plans to less than 2.7 million, the first dip below that threshold since April 2020.

New home listings nationwide fell 17% from last year, while median home sale prices are up 15%, according to a recent Redfin report.  

The all-time high for January comes as limited supply cut pending transactions on a monthly basis, the association said.

The median sales price in the first month of 2021 was up 11.8% from January 2020 to $285,000, nearly matching the record high of $290,000 set last August.

For the ninth month in a row, Redfin is reporting more than half the homes offered by their agents are facing competition at 56%.