Houston Market Update - August 2024

Wow, what a turn in the Houston housing market! As the heat went up, the housing market went down??.?

The ever-increasing Houston housing prices have finally slowed down and taken a slight dip!

As the summer heat went up, the houston housing market went down. Why is that? Well, I’ll cover the latest real estate market trends from August 2024 so make sure you stick around so that you can really understand what this means for you and your specific area.?

High Level Market Overview

Over all from a high level perspective, in August there were 4.5 months of supply available in Houston, which is the highest inventory we’ve seen in over a decade. This is steering us towards a balanced market.?

What does that mean? Months of supply tells you how many months it would take for all of the homes currently on the market to sell, given the average sales volume. 4-6 months of inventory indicates a more balanced market.

Looking at how that’s trending from last month; it’s only a slight increase from July, which was at 4.3 months of inventory, but we are overall seeing an increase throughout this year in this value. As we’re heading towards the last portion of the year and being an election year, we are seeing the market getting away from the seller’s market and toward a balanced market. Will we go into a full buyer’s market? We’re not sure yet, we’ll have to closely monitor where the data is taking us!

Average Price?

In August, the average price for a home in Houston is almost $422,000, keeping in mind that this is the average across all areas. ?

The Houston average price is up by almost a percent (0.9%) from this time last year, but it is down by more than 5% from last month. Clearly we’re seeing the fall market, which is historically a slower season, starting to take affect!

Number of Home Sales?

The number of single family home sales in August went down 8.3% from last year and decreased by almost 4% from July.

This is really a big gauge of where the market is headed this year, when you look at the numbers from last year.

Pending Sales

Looking at Pending sales in August, they went up from last year by 12.7% and increased by over 11% from July.?

Pending sales are the #1 indicator of future closings so it shows the offers placed in August that are ready for closing in September. This is likely the tail end of the more active summer market.?

Interest Rates

If you’re thinking about buying real estate in the near future, mortgage rates are steering downwards slowly at just below 6.5% for a 30yr fixed rate mortgage (it was above6.5% last month in July).?

We are seeing the lowest rates that we’ve seen all year! You may even be able to get a mortgage in the range of 5%! Of course, this may vary depending on the type of loan you’re getting.?

Market Trends Insight

Home prices have steadily been increasing in Houston for years, but what we’re seeing now is that they are finally starting to deflate slightly.

• Average home prices decreased by 5% from last month, even though we’re still showing a 1% increase from last year - that really tells you how much home prices increased throughout the year!?
• Although we will see a higher closing number in September since pending sales increased. We are expecting to see a slow down in the market overall especially if we follow along the increasing days on market.?
• The fall is traditionally known to be a slower time of year and in this case ,this year, we may actually see some home prices finally decrease slightly.

In Houston, we have so many sub-markets that this high level data is great as a reference point but we really need to look at your local market because we have such variations. We are still seeing quick sales and multiple offers in the Memorial area, and while sales are steady in Cypress, we may not see the multiple offers that we were seeing this time last year.

Also, the decrease in interest rates, my bring out the buyers that were on the side lines little by little, but we’ll see how that plays out!

Conclusion

The bottom line is that whether you’re buying or selling, your situation is unique and a general market update should be used at a high level so that you can correctly plan your strategy in your submarket. If you want an accurate market analysis for your home or you’re thinking of buying and want to know where hidden opportunities may lie, you can either request a free no-obligation market evaluation or book a call with me to have a no-pressure conversation about your options. I’ll be sure to answer all your questions thoroughly and accurately!?

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