February proved to be a strong month for home sales in the Houston market, according to the Houston Association of Realtors' monthly report.
Despite “the lowest supply of homes for sale that the Houston market has ever seen,” single family home sales increased by 8.35% over February 2013. There were 4,765 single-family home sales in February 2014 compared to 4,398 for the same month last year.
The average price of a single-family home rose 12.5% to $247,534, compared to the same period last year when the average price of a home was $220,014.
House sales for properties priced from $150,000-$249,999 rose 17.7% year-over-year, while home sales priced from $250,000-$499,999 increased by 33.3% over the same time period. Home sales priced above $500,000 were also up by 40%.
“We continue to experience sales momentum from late 2013, but based on the diminished supply of homes in the Houston area and a slight decline in February’s pending sales, we are likely to see the pace of sales slow down in the next month or so,” said HAR Chair Chaille Ralph with Heritage Texas Properties. “New home construction underway throughout our market should help meet the demand, and lease properties continue to give buyers other options until more homes are available for purchase.”
Total property sales were also up 8.9% for the Houston market from February 2013.
Houston Real Estate Milestones in February
- Single-family home sales increased 8.3% year-over-year, resulting in the market’s 33rd consecutive monthly increase
- Total property sales rose 8.9% compared to one year earlier
- Total dollar volume soared 22.5%, increasing from $1.1 billion to $1.4 billion on a year-over-year basis
- At $181,500, the single-family home median price reached the highest level for a February in Houston
- At $247,534, the single-family home average price also reached a February high
- A 2.6-month supply of inventory of single-family homes is unchanged from December but down from a 3.6-month supply in February 2013 while comparing to the national average of 4.9 months
- Sales of townhouses/condominiums grew 5.2% year-over-year
- Rentals of single-family homes rose 19.2% while rentals of townhouse/condominium units rose 4.3%.
