HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – Realtors just racked up the best February in the history of Houston home sales. Sales are humming along in 2019, basically keeping pace with the sales of last year. And 2018 was a record high year.
The Houston Association of Realtors reported Tuesday that 5,280 single-family homes were sold in February, only 15 more houses than the 5,265 sold in February of last year.
Researchers call that microscopic zero percent change as “flat” or unchanged – or changing so little that it’s meaningless.
The trends established in January and February usually produce very little support for future forecasting because sales are always slow at the beginning of the year.
Over the two-month sales for January and February combined, a total of 9,376 homes were sold in early 2019. That compares to 9,727 sold in the first two months of last year. So the Houston housing market is running 3.6 percent (or 351 fewer home sales) behind the sales pace of the two-month start to 2018.
But these are still excellent results. No other years have matched the two-month sales totals of 2018 and 2019.
The 30-year mortgage remains below 5 percent and the fear of a recession has receded.
This spring should bring a healthy home buying season, according to Frank Nothaft, chief economist of CoreLogic.
Nothaft noted mortgage rates today are lower than they were a year ago. “With interest rates at this level, we expect a solid home-buying season this spring,” he said. “The spike in mortgage interest rates last fall chilled buyer activity and led to a slowdown in home sales and price growth.”
Single-family home prices achieved record highs for a February. The median price (the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less) rose 2.9 percent to $232,900 and the average price increased 1.9 percent to $286,156, HAR reported.
The supply of homes for sale remains normal, favoring sellers to a certain extent. Single-family homes inventory reached a 3.7-months supply in February, HAR said.
