Looking for some guidance on whether you should sell your house in the Houston region or if you should wait? Here are the results of a recent monthly report from the Houston Association of Realtors.
Overall Loss of Momentum
Last year, the Houston housing market performed admirably well. In fact, house sales hit record highs in 2014. However, October of 2015 saw a decline of 10.2 percent when it came to the number of single-family homes sold compared to those sold in October of 2014. While the fall season is traditionally slower, oil industry downturns helped to contribute to the drop even more, leading to a total of just 5,873 house sales in 2015. This represents a drop of 668 sales. Not only that, but also this is the fifth time in 2015 that sales prices have dipped, indicating that it is more than just a statistical blip in the data. When all property types were taken into account and not just single-family homes, there were 7,026 total sales – nearly 12 percent less than the number of homes changing hands in October of last year.
Inventory – and Price Points – Remained High
With October being a slower month of sales, the number of unsold homes grew. In fact, if sales rates stayed the same, it would take 3.5 months of sales to exhaust the supply of homes for sale. This might sound impressive, but in October of 2014 that figure stood at just 2.8 months, indicating that inventory levels are on the upswing. However, there is some good news – with the national average being 4.8 months, the region is still well ahead of the national housing supply curve. Overall price points also remained quite high to the point where this October saw record highs for the month; average single-family home prices jumped to $271,648 – an increase of 3.7 percent from 2014 figures – while the median price, which is the price where half the sales for the month were for less and the other half selling for more, rose to $205,000, a jump of 6.6 percent.
So Should You Pull the Trigger?
All this data is well and good, but it’s not much use in deciding whether it’s time to pull the trigger on listing your house for sale. The rest of the information accumulated by the research study indicated that November is likely to have slower monthly sales as well. One month of slipping sales is one thing, but with market predictions showing more slippage for at least the next month the idea of listing your house for sale seems to be losing traction.
While the opportunities for selling your house in the late fall and early winter seasons are slightly higher, especially if you stage your home tastefully to match the end-of-year holidays like Christmas and New Year’s, overall the prognosis seems a bit on the grim side. With the prime listing seasons being spring and summer, you might have to weather a long few months before sales begin to perk up once more.
Ultimately the choice is of course yours. However, based on the results of the research study, it might seem prudent to hold off – especially as inventory levels continue to remain higher than they have been in the past. This means that even if the average and median house prices have increased, there’s a bigger selection of houses for buyers to choose from – in essence, this has created a “buyer’s market” situation that may need to be ridden out.