In news that comes as no shock to anyone watching local real estate, the Houston market is scorching, with a shortage of available homes priced at $250,000 and below and the area again seeing record sales.
Sales of single-family homes leaped 24.4 percent in March, with 9,347 units sold versus 7,511 a year earlier, according to the latest Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) Market Update.
For those keeping track, that marks the tenth straight positive month of sales. Homes sales here are running 16.9 percent ahead of 2020’s already record pace.
Another staggering number: Sales for homes priced between $500,000 and $750,000 rocketed 96.8 percent in March over last year.
Luxe shoppers fueled an 89.9 percent surge in sales of homes priced $750,000 and above, according to HAR.
Not surprisingly, the seller’s market — dubbed a “buying bonanza” by HAR — means the single-family home average price climbed 19.9 percent to $370,847, while the median price increased 16.0 percent to $290,000. Homes didn’t last long, either: The Days on Market (DOM) figure for single-family homes dropped from 65 to 45.
Sales of all property types totaled 11,692 — that’s up 31.5 percent from March 2020, per HAR. The total dollar volume for the month shot up 55.8 percent to $4 billion.
So who’s buying? Newstonians and locals looking for more space (yards, pools, and home offices) figure prominently, but so do investors, according to the “Housing Investor Mania 2.0” report from John Burns Real Estate Consulting. Investors snapped up some 24 percent of all recently purchased homes recently purchased in the Houston market, the report notes.
“Several overlapping market forces propelled us to a strong finish in March, between a lack of low-to-mid-range housing and aggressive high-end buying by consumers taking advantage of historically low interest rates,” said HAR Chairman Richard Miranda with Keller Williams Platinum, in a press release. “The inventory shortage is causing stress for many folks. Hopefully we begin to see an uptick in new listings sooner than later.”
