Texas home sales volume, home prices and listings activity experienced strong gains in the first half of the year, according to the 2017 Texas Real Estate Midyear Review Report released Friday by the Texas Association of Realtors.
“The devastation brought on by Hurricane Harvey will affect real estate activity in many areas of the state for the remainder of this year,” said Vicki Fullerton, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors. “Sales activity through the first half of the year had surpassed economic projections, with strong growth in sales activity and the number of homes on the market.”
Texas home sales jumped 5.5% compared to the first six months of 2016, with 166,256 homes sold throughout Texas between January and June 2017. Texas home prices also continued to rise steadily in the first half of the year. The median sales price increased 7.7% from the year prior to $221,800.
Jim Gaines, Ph.D., chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, also cautioned that Hurricane Harvey will likely negatively impact housing market statistics for the remainder of 2017. “Houston’s housing market accounts for roughly 25% of the Texas housing market,” said Gaines, “and it could take months before the Houston area begins to enter the recovery phase and a few years before the impacted communities fully recover.”
The number of homes on the market also grew significantly statewide in the first half of the year, with active listings increasing 5.9% year-over-year to 99,398 active listings. This uptick in housing stock has helped lead to a much-needed increase in housing inventory, which ended at 4.1 months in June 2017.
This is only the second time in three years that Texas housing inventory levels have surpassed 4.0 months, although this is still well below the 6 to 6.5 months of inventory the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University estimates as a balanced housing market. Texas homes spent approximately the same length of time on the market in the first half of 2017: an average of 58 days.
Chairman Fullerton concluded, “Realtors across Texas are stepping up and coming together with other community leaders to drive cleanup efforts and bring relief where it is needed most. The Texas Association of Realtors has already distributed more than $1 million through the Realtors Disaster Relief Fund to Texans impacted by Hurricane Harvey. Realtors and many local Realtor associations are also assisting in hands-on relief efforts in areas that were affected by this devastating storm so we can rebuild our communities.”
