According to Newsroom from Houston Association of Realtors, the local real estate market is defying market woes. Rising interest rates and low house inventory directly impact the market. Regardless, March saw a boost in sales. Why? Let’s look at both home buying and home leasing.

Home Buying

Local residents are “undaunted by rising mortgage interest rates and a record low supply of homes.” Every week the market sees new listings. However, demand is still higher. Therefore, it continues to be a seller’s market. With a robust market in 2021, this past March saw an increase in sales over 4%. If you look at 2022 in general, the Houston area will increase sales by over 10%. It really is incredible!

Every group of houses regardless of price increased in sales. Homes priced between $250,000 and $500,000 climbed 36% in sales. By the way, the average price of a home is around $411,000. This is a new record. The median price is $335,000. Luxury homes increased in sales as did the middle range homes.

Days on the market for single-family homes decreased from 46 to 38. Again this illustrates the strength of the seller’s market in our area. A little over 12,000 properties sold last month for a combined total of $4.6 Billion. Those are phenomenal numbers!

Home Leasing

Home buying is not the only thing up. Rentals are also doing well. Some potential home buyers are turning to rentals instead. This makes the rental market also very strong. The average price per month for a single-family home is $2,075. Of course following the trends, this number is up over 6%. The number of leases also rose to 18%. The only thing that did not change was the number of leased townhomes or condominiums. They are staying steady.

Again, why is the Houston real estate market so strong? It would seem that Newsroom believes that residents are “undaunted.” Perhaps homebuyers are coming from places with higher costs of living with more money to spend. Maybe they want to get a house now believing that interest rates will continue to climb throughout the year. It will be interesting to see how the local market changes by the fall. Right now, buying a home is hyper-competitive. For many families they are turning to rentals instead. The good news is that the greater Houston area is a wonderful place to live.