September housing market for Houston

Some analysts might call the September housing market in Houston stagnate or even on a downturn due to the 0.5% decline of single family homes, but on a year-to-date basis, single family home sales were up 1.3 percent with a total of 6,652 units sold.  That’s  an increase of 1.3 percent compared to this point in 2015. 

Mid range housing seems to be the favored sales area all around. HAR.com says that the average sales price rose 5.2 percent to $262,868 while the median sales price increased 7.3 percent to $205,000. And that the single-family home median price—the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less—rose 4.8 percent to $219,990. That is the highest median price ever for a September. The average price increased 2.4 percent to $277,849, which is also a September high.

Houston is #7 on Realtor.com list of America’s Housing markets and unlike other markets, all trends in Houston are up. These numbers are evidence that Houston’s housing market is still strong.

Maybe Houston’s resilience to the issues plaguing the rest of the nation are due to our diversity and economy. Greater Houston Partnership October 2016 Newsletter claims Houstonians’ incomes have outperformed economic inflation between 2005 and 2015. Also, that we have a high percentage of upper middle class and affluent households in our urban and suburban populations in relation to 2005. And that we draw a large number of new Houstonians from overseas which contributes not only to diversity, but our economy in general. Another bolster to our economy could be the return in late August and early September of college students attending the major universities that call Houston home.

Even with the oil market hang ups, the Texas Workforce Commission reported Houston adding jobs in the last 14 months. Traditionally, the economy is strong and new jobs continue to open from September thru December as the holiday retail season approaches.

All this considered, we look forward to positive trends in Houston for the rest of 2016.