Falling mortgage interest rates, rising oil prices, and more options for home buyers all helped to create a strong real estate market in April. According to the Houston Association of Realtor’s monthly report, the luxury homes market drew the greatest volume of sales.
Prices of single-family homes reached record highs for an April. The median price rose 2.1 percent to $245,000 and the average price was up 1.9 percent at $310,676.
According to HAR, total active listings, or the total number of available properties, jumped 13.8 percent to 42,086. April sales of all property types totaled 9,063, up 7.8 compared to the same month last year. As a result, the absorption rate for April 2019 increased slightly to 22% versus the 21% rate we saw in March.
Days on Market (DOM), or the number of days it took the average home to sell, was up slightly to 57 days. However, this is down from February’s 68 days. Inventory grew to a 4-months supply. That is up from 3.5 months a year earlier and marks the greatest supply of homes since September 2018. It is below the national inventory of 3.9 months reported by NAR.
As the summer heats up, we continue to see a robust real estate market. With inventories up and mortgage rates down, the market continues to be a good one for home buyers in most Houston markets.