Home sales in the Lone Star State have never been hotter than they were in 2015, with the number of homes sold reaching an all-time high for the second year in a row.
According to the Texas Quarterly Housing report from the Texas Association of Realtors, home sales in 2015 rose 4.1% from 309,090.
This is the first time that annual Texas home sales have topped 300,000.
Texas home prices continued to climb steadily in the fourth quarter and throughout 2015, the report showed
According to the report, the median price for Texas homes was $195,000 during the fourth quarter of 2015, which represented a 5.5% increase from the same quarter of the previous year.
While the median price for Texas homes reached $200,000 in summer 2015, the close of 2015 marked the highest annual median price figure in the history of Texas real estate.
“Texas has enjoyed four straight years of booming real estate growth and record-high housing demand,” said Leslie Rouda Smith, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors.
“While 2016 might not turn out to be another record year for Texas real estate, housing demand will likely remain strong and home prices will likely continue to rise over the next year. Four years of housing inventory shortages have created a backlog of housing demand across the state—particularly in Texas’s metro areas,” added Smith.
Housing inventory rose slightly throughout 2015, ending the fourth quarter of 2015 at 3.4 months compared to 3.1 months in the same quarter the previous year. The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University estimates that a monthly housing inventory between 6 and 6.5 months is a level at which the supply and demand for homes is balanced.
Texas homes spent an average of 60 days on the market, a decrease of four days compared to the same quarter of the prior year.
According to Jim Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, the falling oil prices and drilling activity are just beginning to “significantly impact" the Texas real estate market.
“The full effects have yet to be seen. However, the decline of the energy sector could add much-needed housing stock to the market, filling labor shortages in the homebuilding industry and helping the Texas housing market move towards a more balanced market for buyers and sellers,” added Gaines.
In the fourth quarter of 2015, 70,150 homes were sold in Texas which was a 0.3% increase from the same quarter of 2014.
