Single-family housing starts were up 4.2% from April and 49.8% from May 2020, at 1,098,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Although pending sales are up 29% from last year, they are starting to slow down, dropping 9.7% from their peak four weeks ago.

Increasing costs and declining availability of key building materials dampened builder sentiment, as higher costs have pushed some new homes beyond the budget of prospective buyers.

Houston’s inventory hits record lows and single-family home prices reach record highs as the city experiences its twelfth consecutive month of positive sales in May.

Of the 99 million residential properties in the U.S., approximately 1.4 million (or 1.4%) are vacant this quarter, with “zombie” home rates increasing both quarterly (21%) and annually (5.6%).

Special questions added to the National Association of Home Builders’ monthly builder survey found 90% or more of respondents had experienced shortages of plywood, oriented strand board, framing lumber and appliances, with most other materials also hard to come by.

Year over year, however, pending home sales were up 57.1%, the NAR said, citing its monthly Pending Home Sales Index.

New, pending and off-market listings are all down, while the number of closings climbs as Houston’s housing market continues to struggle to keep up with demand.

“Demand is robust throughout the country, but homebuyers continue to be held back by the lack of homes for sale and rapidly increasing home prices.” — MBA Associate Vice President of Economic and Industry Forecasting Joel Kan

The national year-over-year gain is the highest recorded since December 2005, Craig Lazzara, managing director and global head of index investment strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indexes, said in a press release.

As Houston’s luxury home market stays red-hot, nine Houston buyer’s agents helped clients purchase the 10 most expensive homes in April priced up to $7,450,000.

Americans believe it’s a much better time to sell a home than to buy one, according to Fannie Mae’s latest survey of home purchase sentiment.

Houston saw an increase in single-family home sales, total property sales, total dollar volume sales, new listings, pending listings, closings and showings compared to April 2020.

The number of buyers who locked in mortgage rates for second homes spiked to 178% year over year in April, according to a report from Redfin.

The Houston Association of Realtors’ FRESH report briefly covers new listings, active listings and average list price for single-family homes activity in April 2021 compared to April 2020.

The NAHB attributed the monthly increase in its construction spending index to single-family construction and single-family improvements, both of which rose by 2% on a monthly basis. Multifamily construction, meanwhile, declined 0.3% after falling 0.9% in February.