AUSTIN – (By Dale King, Realty News Report) — Condominium and townhome sales in Texas soared past $5.4 billion and posted strong gains in sales volume between August 2016 and July 2017, says a Texas condo sales report just released by the Texas Association of Realtors.
During that period, the combined sales dollar volume of condos and townhomes sold in Texas was $5,411,886,686. Of that total, condo purchasers spent $3,329,759,930 while townhome buyers plunked down $2,082,126,756 for their residences.
Any effect from Hurricane Harvey is yet to be determined, said Jim Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
“The impact of Hurricane Harvey and subsequent flooding is not fully captured in [this] data,” he said. “The short- and long-run effects of the disaster and recovery process may result in some data revisions in future reports.”
Gaines pointed out that “the Texas housing market staggered as Harvey shut down the Houston economy for almost a week. The drastic 26.7% year-over-year decline in Houston housing sales reflects the magnitude of the market disruptions.”
“On the supply side,” he noted, “a 21.2% year-over-year decrease in Houston housing permits pulled Texas out of the top ten states for monthly permits per capita. In the rest of Texas, market fundamentals were relatively unchanged, with supply constraints persisting in the resale market, resulting in elevated price pressures and some slowdown in sales activity.”
Commenting on the Texas condo/townhome market, TAR Chairman Vicki Fullerton said it has been “one of the fastest-growing segments of the housing market this year.”
According to TAR, Texas condominium sales increased 8.6% to 14,656 sales and townhome sales increased 5.1% to 8,134 sales during the aforementioned time frame, making condominiums and townhomes one of the fastest-growing segments of the Texas housing market in 2017.
Sales prices also increased for condominiums and townhomes throughout 2016 and into 2017. Statewide, the year-to-date median sales price as of July 2017 was $179,900 for condominiums and $226,675 for townhomes, an annual increase of 9.0% and 8.5%, respectively. The average price-per-square foot during this time frame was $178 for condominiums and $136 for townhomes in Texas.
The housing inventory for Texas condominiums and townhomes grew to 4.9 months of inventory as of July 2017, an increase of 0.1 months for condominiums and a 0.6-month increase for townhomes. In the first seven months of the year, Texas condominiums and townhomes spent an average of 61 and 54 days on the market, respectively.
“Rapid population growth across the state has turned cities surrounding our major metro areas into job and development hubs, creating a need for condominium and townhome development outside of urban centers that did not exist before,” said Gaines. “As this growth continues over the next decade, higher density options such as condominiums and townhomes will be essential to maintaining affordability in our cities.”
Data for the Texas Condominium Sales Report is provided by the Data Relevance Project, a partnership among the Texas Association of Realtors and local Realtor associations throughout the state. Data analysis is provided by the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.
The report analyzes condominium and townhome sales data from July 2016 through July 2017 for the Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio metropolitan statistical areas.