Anecdotally, we can tell you the market has slowed a little bit over the past few weeks. The number of multiple offers is starting to decline and the frantic nature of the Spring selling has subsided. You wouldn't know all this by looking at the numbers from July. Home continued to move and they continued to sell very quickly. It remains a pretty good time to be a home seller, even if buyers have a little more breathing room and a few more options than they had back in May.
According to the latest report from the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), 10,159 single-family homes sold in July compared to 10,822 a year earlier. July 2020 numbers are a little skewed by the fact that the market was just recovering from the initial Covid shutdowns. If we compare July 2021 to the 8,921 of homes sold in July 2019, we can see how historic these numbers have been.
Once again, homes priced from $750,000 and above led the way in sales volume with a 36.7 percent year-over-year increase. That was followed by the $500,000 to $750,000 segment, which rose 18.9 percent. Not quite the growth we saw in June, but still pretty strong.
Home prices continued to rise year over year. The single-family home average price increased 15.3 percent to $389,197 and the median price climbed 13.9 percent to $309,910. That marks the second highest pricing of all time behind June's record-setting figures.
According to HAR, total active listings, or the total number of available properties, fell 20.6 percent to 27,268. July sales of all property types totaled 12,383, down 3.7% compared to July of last year. As a result, the absorption rate for June 2021 was 45%! That means almost half of all homes listed went under contract in July.
How fast are homes selling? They are still moving pretty fast. Days on Market (DOM), or the number of days it took the average home to sell, fell to 26 days in July. This number has been falling all year.
Inventory fell to 1.8-months supply compared to 2.9 months a year earlier. That level is the highest of 2021 but it is still below the current national inventory of 2.6 months recently reported by NAR.
In the weeks to come, we may find that homes are stilling on the market a little longer than we have been used to. As we stated last month, late July and August are typically slower months, as home buyers pause their home search due to the Houston heat and summer vacations. This market tends to rebound after Labor Day and once the kiddos go back to school. A moderate slow down could help create some breathing room for home buyers and provide them with a few more options than they had in the spring and early summer.
Regardless of what happens, be prepared. Make sure you have the information you need to make an informed decision on when to start house hunting or listing your home. Contacting a Norhill Realtor is a good place to start. One of our experienced agents can talk you through the current state of the market in the neighborhoods you care about, and if buying, get you connected with an experienced, professional mortgage broker so you can decide on the timing that works for you.
Norhill Realty provides expert real estate services to residential buyers and sellers in Houston and surrounding communities. Contact us today for more information on Houston real estate and for professional assistance navigating this sometimes complex home market.
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