Wow! There is a lot going on: Coronavirus, falling Oil Prices, falling stock prices, and a low, but volatile mortgage rate environment. All of this presents a lot of uncertainty about the Spring rush. Anecdotally, we can say at the time of this writing that we are taking it day by day. All of our clients have unique home buying and selling circumstances, so we will continue to advise based on those individual circumstances. Generally, we can suggest to everyone seek out professional advice and be patient as this situation progresses.
With respect to the near term state of the market, pending sales are one of the best short term indicators that we can reliably track and even those numbers are lagging by a few days. Based on our research, pending sales are slightly down last week and we anticipate further decline at the completion of this week. This will inevitably create some pent up demand once things start to normalize in Houston.
Now for your regularly scheduled February report. According to the Houston Association of Realtors, single-family home sales across greater Houston totaled 6,044 in February. This is up 13.2% from the same period in 2019. Single-family homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000 led the way in February sales followed by homes priced at or above $750,000.
Home prices for single-family homes reached an all-time high for February. The median home price rose 5.2 percent to $245,000. The average price rose 5.9 percent to $301,648.
According to HAR, total active listings, or the total number of available properties, rose 3.8 percent to 40,091. February sales of all property types totaled 7,393, up 14.9% compared to the same month last year. As a result, the absorption rate for February 2020 was up slightly to 18% from the 17% rate we saw in February of 2019 for all property types.
Days on Market (DOM), or the number of days it took the average home to sell, was unchanged from last month at 68. Inventory registered a 3.5-months supply. That compares to 3.6 months a year earlier and is greater than the current national inventory level of 3.1 months reported by NAR.
Regardless of where you live, If you need any professional advice regarding your home sale or purchase over the coming weeks, let us know. Even if we can’t speak directly to your local market, we are happy to help point you in the right direction. Although many of our agents are working from home, we are available and ready to help.
