A combination of a lack of inventory for low-priced homes, aggressive shopping among high-end homes and historically low interest rates led to a surge in the sales of single-family homes in March.

The housing supply shortage is expected to get more extreme as homebuyer demand continues to outweigh inventory levels, a new study found.

Who had the 10 most expensive deals in the Houston area in March?

Rising wages and falling mortgage rates are helping keep homeownership within reach of average wage earners nationwide despite surges in housing prices.

The data are skewed because it was at this time last year that the coronavirus pandemic forced the real estate business to go into lockdown until it was deemed an essential service.

Prices in the Houston metro area were up 6.3% over February 2020. CoreLogic classified Houston’s market as “overvalued.”

Houston wasn’t the only Texas city to make the list. The Lone Star State has five of them on the list, including No. 1 ranked Midland. 

“The demand for a home purchase is widespread, multiple offers are prevalent, and days-on-market are swift, but contracts are not clicking due to record-low inventory.” — NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun

Much of the year-over-year increase in home sales was supported by continued robust activity in the Southeast, which saw a 20.2% rise to an annual rate of 458,000 transactions.

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.