Houston Real Estate Milestones, August 2009

I think the months of inventory is an important indicator of our market's overall health (see below). Six months is actually characteristic of a "seller's market" and nine months is considered "balanced". This means our market is moving faster than the national average, even though sales are down and prices are lower than this time last year. There were 575 fewer active listings at the end of August '09, compared to the end of July '09. Available properties fell 12.9% at the end of August '09 vs. August '08 to 46.023. Again, that means market is moving.

Another thing I found interesting is that foreclosure sales were down again in August, representing only 16.7% of all single-family home sales vs. 18.3% this time last year. The 12-month peak was 34% of sales in January '09.

Here are the official Houston Association of Realtors' August '09 Milestones:

The median price of a single-family home rose for the fourth straight month to the third highest level of 2009 ($160,880)

The average price of a single-family home reached its third highest level of the year ($213,396)

Month-over-month volume of single-family home sales reached the third highest level of 2009

Month-over-month volume of townhouse/condominium sales reached the third highest level of 2009

Month’s inventory of single-family homes dipped from 6.7 to 6.5 months compared to the national average of 9.4 months.

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