Houston Housing Stats August, 2020

[Sharon Tzib]

https://www.har.com/content/newsroom/

Houston Real Estate Highlights in August:

• -Following a record-setting performance in July, single-family home sales held to positive territory again in August, rising 6.0 percent year-over-year with 9,195 units sold;
• -The Days on Market (DOM) figure for single-family homes lowered from 53 to 51 days;
• -Total property sales rose 7.3 percent with 11,121 units sold;
• -Total dollar volume jumped 13.4 percent to $3.5 billion;
• -The single-family home median price rose 7.6 percent to $269,000 – the second highest median price of all time;
• -The single-family home average price increased 7.8 percent to $334,256 – the second highest average price in history;
• -Single-family homes months of inventory registered a 2.8-months supply, down from 4.1 months last August and below the national inventory level of 3.1 months;
• -Townhome/condominium sales rose 1.3 percent, with the average price up 4.5 percent to $216,733 and the median price up 1.7 percent to $175,000;
• -Single-family home rentals dropped 13.3 percent with the average rent up 2.3 percent to $1,961;
• -Townhome/condominium leases fell 13.7 percent with the average rent up 1.0 percent to $1,654.

[Mark Sewell]

Originally posted by @Jiji John:

I was surprised to see the lack of rental homes in certain Houston markets even though the data says the rentals dropped by 13.3% but the rent went up,let us hope this will go on like this until next year.

I believe this is a reflection of lack of supply at this low-end price point.  New houses are rarely built less than 1800 sf and even those are over $220K.

Even before, in 2019, there was fierce competition to scoop those small 3/1 or 3/2 little houses in working class neighborhoods - if you were lucky you could get them for $85k or $90k and put $20k into them and have a nice little cashflowing rental at around $1350 or $1400 per month.  Most times you had to pay a little more but the numbers would kinda still work.  Not anymore.  Now those are getting scooped up in hours, and the prices are way higher.  It's like buyers just stopped taking condition of the house into consideration.  It could be a pit, foul smells and all, and it's gone in a flash at full asking - just because there is almost nothing under $180k left to buy anymore.

In fact I am starting to wonder if maybe now we are seeing a small resurgence in townhomes/condos at the lower price points as well... people gotta live somewhere.