The Houston Homes Market for June 2008 was a mixed bag. All those involved in the Houston Market can say this month’s statistics on home sales have both good news and bad news. According to statistics released by the Houston Association of REALTORS®, Houston posted another decline in the number of home sales; down 14.7% from the record setting numbers from June 2007. Despite this decline in total sales, the Houston Market showed unparalleled strength in property values in comparison to other markets around the country. It continues to look like Houston will weather the mortgage market crisis we have been experiencing. While many metro areas are posting record setting declines in property values, the Houston Homes Market showed the average price of a single-family home rise 4.5% in June to $228,448, moving beyond the previous high set in June of 2007 at $218,583. Along with the increase in the average price of a home, the median home sale price also rose 1.3% in June coming in at $162,000 which beats the previous record set in June 2007.
Even though the Houston Real Estate Market has continued to post strong numbers, the story is long from that of a seller’s market with increasing inventory resulting largely in part to the decreases seen in total number of sales. A great deal of evidence points to the possibility that we have not seen the worst of the mortgage market crisis. This leaves Houston in a Buyer’s market with rare opportunities for anyone that has been thinking of making a home purchase to find a great value. With high inventory, low interest rates, home values continuing to show appreciation, and nervous home sellers, buyers have the upper hand in negotiations along with plenty of homes to choose from.
Houston Metro June Monthly Comparison
In June 2008, the Housing inventory, also referred to as active listings, finished with 53,792 properties which reflects an increase of 2% from June 2007. The number of homes available was up 487 from May of 2008. The end of June showed pending sales (listings expected to close within 30 days) at 4,456. The number of pending sales came in at 20.6% lower than that seen last year. This leads to speculation that home sales will decline for July of 2008 in a manner similar to June of 2008. Total months of housing inventory (number of listings divided by number of sales for the period) for June 2008 finished at 6.7 months which is a slight increase from May’s 6.6 months. Comparing these numbers to June of 2007 shows a more significant increase as monthly inventory for that period was 6.2 months.
Below are graphs showing a more detailed comparison of past numbers with those that were seen for June of 2008
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| * Months inventory estimates the number of months it will take to deplete current active inventory based on the prior 12 months sales activity. The above figure was provided by HAR.com. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Single-Family Homes Update
The median home sale price of single-family homes in June was $162,000 compared to $206,700 reported by the National Association of REALTORS®. This data continues to show the higher value the Houston Homes Market provides to consumers, not to mention the lower cost of living that prevails in the Houston Real Estate Market.
June sales of single-family homes in the Houston Homes Market came in at 6,113, 14.7% lower than June 2007. Home sales activity in the Houston Housing Market is a tale of three markets. Positive sales activity continued in Houston’s low-end single-family home market, with a 29.3% increase among homes priced below $80,000. Home sales numbers continued to decline in the $80,000 to $150,000 price range, and home sales for homes above the $150,000 price point remained flat.
HAR reported that in June 2008, existing single-family home sales had a 12.6% decrease which showed a slightly better performance than new home sales which had a 24.4% decrease for total sales of 5,252. At $211,653, the average sales price for existing homes in the Houston area rose 3.1% compared to the same period last year. The median sales price of $154,900 for the month increased 1.9% from June of 2007.
Days on Market (DOM) for June dropped to 76 from 79 in May, only slightly exceeding the 72 days for June 2007. The DOM is at its lowest level since September of 2007.
Townhome and Condominium Update
At $179,331, the average price of attached housing (townhouse and condominiums) in the Houston Metro Area reached a new record high in June of 2008, rising 11.9% from June of 2007. The median price of attached housing rose 5.4% to $136,750, between June of 2007 and June 2008.
The number of townhouses and condominiums sold in June 2008 was lower than that of June of 2007, but reached the highest level since August 2007. In the Houston Metro Area, 638 units were sold last month compared to 708 properties in June 2007, giving a 9.9% decrease.
Thank you for taking the time to read my analysis of the houston housing market. I will be providing an update of market changes every month once the data becomes available. Please feel free to comment on any of my posts with your thoughts and of course any advice on how I can improve this blog for all my readers. I have decided to turn this blog into a “do follow” blog to reward those members of my readership that take the time to comment.
