Hello everyone I would like to announce that the Houston housing market blog will be adding real time active listing data for each market area in the greater Houston area. Over the next 90 days a new market will have total active inventory data, median list price data, average days on market of active listings, and a market condition index posted. The data will be posted in real time updating charts with a 12 month moving average curve. The data in the graphs will update every 7 days making this site have the most up to date information for the Houston real estate market.
If we get positive feedback about these charts then our plans are to expand the available statistics and add them for every zip code in the Houston metro area. We are still working on providing sold data in a similar format as a couple of readers of this blog have asked for sold data to be posted to for each zip code. With Texas being a non-disclosure state and the Houston Association of Realtors making it difficult to get data at the agent level we have run into a lot of red tap in providing sold data to the public without requiring registration.
Directly below you will find the first set of charts for the Houston housing market. These charts will contain information for the city of Houston real estate market only. The data updating in the charts will only be for Houston proper and not the entire Houston-Galveston-Baytown-Sugarland MSA.
Houston Housing Market Median Price
The above chart holds a graph of the Median List Price of homes in the city of Houston. One important thing to note is you should focus more attention to the troughs found within the curve as the Houston real estate market commonly sees a spike in the Median home price during the summer months, likely caused by the larger number of well established families that generally have higher incomes and assets making purchases when school is out. Please also remember that the chart above is updated every seven days and utilizes active listing data and not sold data. We hope to provide sold data in the near future.
Houston Total Inventory
The graph above gives a moving average of the total number of listings in the city of Houston. The chart provides a 12 month snap shot and will be updated every seven days providing access to real time data.
Houston Average Days On Market
The chart above provides a 12 month moving average of the city of Houston’s average days on market of active listings. The chart will update every seven days. It is important to note that the data plotted in the graph above is not of sold homes. This means that none of the homes used to develop the graph have sold. So the days on market numbers are distorted by homes that are over priced and listed by unmotivated sellers. Therefore, the chart is better used as an idea of the market trend of the days on market increasing or decreasing rather than as an indicator of how long it takes for a home to sell in the Houston market place.
Houston Market Activity Index
The chart above is a market condition index developed by Altos Research. The goal of the index is to predict if a area is seeing a buyer’s market or a seller’s market. A lower number means that buyer’s have a greater advantage in negotiations than do seller’s. When interpreting the index for the Houston real estate market you should consider a 20 or better to be a seller’s market. Where seller’s have a meaningful advantage in negotiations over the buyer. A value less than 20 should be viewed as a buyer’s market where buyers are in the drivers seat when it comes to negotiating price and terms of a contract for sale.
I hope you find the charts above useful and insightful. Please take the time to let us know how you liked them either in the comments section or by contacting James Wheelock at 281-979-0793 or by email at james.wheelock@ERA.com. You can also feel free to contact me if you have any questions or requests to make the site here more useful.
November 18th, 2009 at 6:12 am
James,
That’s a pretty ambitious project you’ve started there! 90 days, huh? I was looking at the chart titles “Houston Total Inventory” and couldn’t help but notice that it has been holding relatively steady since May. While I’m sure you’d prefer growth, that steadiness is interesting to me. What variables do you think would have to be affected to see a small upswing in that chart?
November 18th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
Yeah, it is rather ambitious, but I want my readers to have access to the data in time to find a place before the new tax credits expire.
To answer your question about what I think would cause a rise in inventory, I would say the expiration of the tax credit prior to the selling season would have caused inventory to rise. Since that credit was expanded and extended until Spring this obviously should not affect our inventory levels.
I also believe that if oil dropped below $50 a barrel we would see another wave of layoffs and that is very likely to increase inventory as we would have more foreclosures and fewer buyers.
December 3rd, 2009 at 11:54 am
Really a great information for everyone related to real estate. I am sure you will be getting more positive feedback regarding this project.
My best wishes for the good work to continue.