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"Record Year" for Houston Real Estate Doesn't Resonate, Whopping Decline in Sales
With volume softening, a near collapse of the affordable property market, Houston realtors were surprised to read their association's recent pronouncement:The year 2007 shaped up to be one of the best on record for property sales in Houston... The Houston Association of Realtors was quick to point out December's data though showed the fourth consecutive falloff in property sales.
And what a drop it was.
December 2007 sales were 23.5% lower than the same month in 2006.
And owners of affordable homes are struggling even ore than a standard market slowdown would suggest. While number of homes sold fell, the overall dollar volume fell by a much smaller amount.
That's because the homes that are selling are the higher priced homes.
In this down market, the median home price THAT SELLS is 5.7% higher than last year.
Realtors can succeed in this environment by catering to the high-end. The liquidiy crisis affecting large banks and their investors is hitting the average middle-class homeowner the hardest.
| | ALL CATEGORIES | DECEMBER 2006 | DECEMBER 2007 | PERCENT CHANGE | | Total property sales | 7,361 | 5,957 | -23.5% | | Total dollar volume | $1,475,069,282 | $1,251,800,190 | -15.1% | | Average single-family sales price | $204,843 | $216,433 | +5.7% | | Median single-family sales price | $150,000 | $153,630 | +2.4% | | Total active listings | 43,438 | 49,566 | +14.1% | | Total pending sales | 4,369 | 3,773 | -13.6% | | Months inventory* | 5.0 | 5.9 | +17.6% | | | * Months inventory estimates the number of months it will take to deplete current active inventory based on the prior 12 months sales activity. This figure is representative of the single-family homes market. | | |
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