The First Time Buyer Tax Credit has rightly been credited with stimulating recent home sales; however, looking at the result by price range shows that in Houston there is more at work than just the tax credit. In an earlier post I pointed out that the number of transactions in 2009 compared to 2008 were down 20.3% in the first quarter, down 19.1% in the second quarter and will be up slightly in the third quarter. I have analyzed those numbers by price range. The analysis shows that the third quarter experienced significant improvement in all price ranges except over $2,000,000. The over $2,000,000 segment continues to languish with all three quarters reporting declines of more than 50%. The segment of $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 had as many sales in third quarter 2009 as in third quarter 2008. The surprising number, one that I have yet to understand the reason, the segment of $750,000 to $1,000,000 showed more than 15% increase in the third quarter after having sizable decreases in the earlier quarters. I know these numbers may make your head swim. The big picture is we have one additional sign that the market is slowly improving and in all segments under $2,000,000. Shown below are the quarterly comparisons by price range.

                                          Houston Single Family Home Sales
                                        Change in Transactions 2008 to 2009