Houston Association of REALTORS® Releases November Market Update

Houston Association of REALTORS® Releases November Market Update

The Houston Market saw the fifth consecutive month of comparable sales declines for single family homes, according to the November Multiple Listing Service Market Update by the Houston Association of REALTORS ® (HAR). The market was down 22 percent in unit sales in November versus the same month last year.  

Meanwhile, Houston home prices continue to climb with November’s median  single-family  home price at $152,500 being the highest ever recorded in a November. Houston housing prices remain a good value compared to the $170,600 national median price in November.

Northeast Houston also had less single family homes sold this November compared to 2009. However, the percentage decline improved dramatically for both Area 1 Northeast Houston (Atascocita) and Area 40 Montgomery County Northeast (Oakhurst). Area 1 was down just 5.5 percent with 154 homes sold, a big improvement over the drop of 28 percent in October. Area 40 sold 43 homes in November which was a 12 percent drop versus last year, but better than the 30 percent sales decline seen in October. However, Area 32 Far Northeast Houston (Kingwood) sold just 46 homes, down 44 percent versus last year’s number.

Areas 1 and 40 outperformed the Houston market for median home prices versus last year. While the Houston market was up just 2 percent, the median price of single-family houses grew 9 percent in Area 1 to $149,900 and 11 percent in Area 40 to $166,500. Whereas in November, the median price dropped to $160,000 in the Kingwood area, which is a 9 percent decline versus last year.

Based on the active listings figures, the Houston market had 20 percent more single family homes on the market this November. Likewise,  the areas that encompass Kingwood and Oakhurst had more homes for sale versus last November: Area 32 was up 19 percent and Area 40 was up 32 percent. The Atascocita Area 1, however, dipped slightly in terms of the number of homes available for sale, declining seven-tenths of a percent last month. In addition, November’s pending sales for the Houston market were less than six percent behind last year, which is an improvement over October.

“The November report suggests to me that the Houston real estate market is taking a considerable amount of time to recover from the end of the whirlwind pace of sales triggered earlier this year by the homebuyer tax credit,” said Margie Dorrance, HAR chair and principal at Keller Williams Realty Metropolitan. “Bright spots in the housing report include what appears to be improvement in pending sales and, of course, the continued price appreciation not seen in most other markets. The next couple of months will hopefully enable us to gauge the overall market performance that we can expect in 2011.”



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