HOUSTON – (Realty News Report) – June of 2018 was the strongest month ever for home sales in Houston healthy job growth fueled a continuation of brisk sales and higher home prices.
The Houston Association of Realtors reported 8,518 single-family homes were sold in June, breaking the previous record of 8,367 sold in June 2017.
“It’s a strong economy and we have a lack of inventory,” said former HAR chair Shad Bogany of Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene.
Prices hit record highs. The single-family home median price (the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less) rose 2.6 percent to $245,000, HAR reported. A decade ago, in June 2008, Houston had a median home price of $162,000. Ten years before that, in 1998, the median price was $104,000.
”I think the biggest issue we have is affordability,” Bogany said. “The rich are getting richer and the middle class is getting poorer.”
A key to addressing the affordability problem is that home builders are not producing enough new homes, says Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the National Association of Realtors. And building lower-priced homes are not widely recognized as a lucrative proposition for builders.
Houston has a 4.1 months-supply of single-family home sales. A 6-month supply is considered a balanced market. Tight inventories put upward pressure on prices.
“If there were concerns about rising home prices in the Houston market, you wouldn’t know it from all the home buying that took place in June,” said HAR Chair Kenya Burrell-VanWormer with JPMorgan Chase. “We continue to outperform last year’s record pace of home sales, but we’ll keep a close eye on inventory levels in the weeks ahead to ensure they are meeting demand.”
Houston’s economy has been on the upswing as oil prices have risen and drilling activity had grown. The metro area added 79,200 jobs in the 12-month period ending at the end of May. And there has been population growth. The region added 94,400 in population in 2017.
Year-to-date single-family sales are up 2.6 percent over the midyear market of last year.
July 11, 2018 Realty News Report Copyright 2018