New Game

Eclipses, hurricanes, flooding and an Astros win! The end of summer has been eventful in Houston and it’s not just a change of season on the horizon, but a completely new view of the housing market after parts of Houston have flooded 3 times in as many years.

Houstonians that were searching for their dream home may be looking for a new dream if their original search area ended up underwater thanks to Harvey. And home buyers who have just started looking or have been pushed into the market due to irreparable home damage, may find themselves in a whole new game.

Some home buyers will be using Federal Housing Administration Disaster loans which allow them to buy a home with no down payment and easier qualifications to speed the process and allow displaced individuals to normalize quicker. Regardless of mortgage type, buyers will need to ask new questions about prospective dwellings such as bodies of water or retention areas nearby and check flood insurance requirements carefully.

Investors will see some confusion in their futures as they flip flood houses within a questionable market – will anyone be buying those homes? More buyers will likely line up for homes that have no history of flooding prior to Harvey.

As the nation looks at Houston, many will criticize and cast doom upon us – as they have done with the energy busts – but to those that fear the supply and demand imbalance will drive housing prices into space, Reuters has this to say: “Harris County, which includes Houston and many suburbs, has added more than 1 million residents since 2000 and remains the second fastest-growing county in the United States despite a recent oil industry downturn, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Though housing prices have risen steadily with the influx of demand, the region’s median home price of $230,000 remains well below that of many major U.S. cities.”

The New York Times calls Houston’s housing market “unsinkable”. What do you think - should buyer and seller expectations change based on a once in a lifetime natural disaster?