More houses are for sale in Houston than ever before.
Houston neared 44,000 home listings in August, marking a year-over-year increase of more than 8,000 homes and driving its inventory to the biggest in the country, according to Homes.com.
Single-family detached homes accounted for the lion’s share of inventory last month with over 39,000 listings, but townhouses and condos proliferated faster. About 700 more townhouses and 500 more condos were for sale last month compared to a year prior, representing bumps of 30 percent and 39 percent, respectively. Listings for detached homes increased at 22 percent.
Although conditions are increasingly favoring buyers, the median home price was flat in August for the first time in months at $340,000. Houston registered lowering prices from March to July. Nationally, the median home price rose by more than 2 percent year-over-year last month to $389,000, putting Houston well within reach of a buyer’s market, said CoStar director of market analytics Itziar Aguirre.
It’s possible that the Federal Reserve’s recent interest rate cut will encourage more buyer interest, Aguirre said.
“We’re seeing houses sit on the market longer. We’re seeing prices go down, especially in the condo market. And, mortgage rates, while they’re still high, they’re actually at the lowest they’ve been in about a year,” Aguirre said.
Houston’s record-setting inventory follows years of breakneck building. The city issued over 230,000 building permits between 2020 and 2023, surpassing every other city in the country. It issued over 11,000 permits in January and February, which amounted to 6 percent of activity in the 150 biggest cities in the country, and almost 37 percent of permits issued in Texas.
“I would say there’s probably a bit of market correction going on since Houston saw significant price appreciation from 2020 to 2022,” Aguirre added.
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