The Sky is Not Falling in Houston Real Estate

Yesterday, the front page of the Houston Chronicle spelled doom and gloom for the Houston Real Estate Market. The article reported sales were down 25% compared to the year before. Most would look at this and think Houston homes are finally in the same slump as the rest of the nation. As a Houston Realtor, The more I look deeper into the statistics I find the market is still in good shape.
The Federal First Time Buyer’s Tax Credit had a tremendous effect on the market and generating strong sales. It is no surprise that this incentive caused a lot of people to purchase that normally would have waited. Now that the credit has expired, there are logically less people in the market. A real estate market is only capable of supporting a certain number of sales and when they are dispersed unevenly, it causes fluctuations in the statistics. Think of it like a balloon. It can only hold so much air and when you squeeze one end of it, it gets smaller while other areas get larger. The same analogy could be applied for the effect the credit had on sales.
As we look for positive signs in the market, the most promising is the fact that sales are still up 3% year to date over last year. The average price is still showing an increase and days on market have gone down compared to last year. The only statistic that could be concerning to sellers is the number of months of inventory has increased to 7.7 months however still well below the national average of 8.9 months.
To sum up all of these statistics, the market is remaining stable and provided an excellent environment for buyers to purchase a home in Houston or surrounding areas. If you need a Realtor in Houston, Pearland, Sugar Land, Katy, or the surrounding areas, please contact Paul Silverman at www.ourfrstnest.com