A shortage of available homes priced at $250,000 and below combined with frenzied shopping among high-end homes produced a surge in pricing when compared to a Houston housing market in the grips of a pandemic-related lockdown a year earlier, in March 2020. Record low interest rates continued to fuel the buying bonanza.
According to the latest Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) Market Update, single-family homes sales jumped 24.4 percent in March with 9,347 units sold versus 7,511 a year earlier. That marks the tenth straight positive month of sales. On a year-to-date basis, homes sales are running 16.9 percent ahead of 2020’s record pace.
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Sales of all property types totaled 11,692 – up 31.5 percent from March 2020. Total dollar volume for the month shot up 55.8 percent to $4.0 billion.
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A 5.8 percent year-over-year decline in new listings combined with another strong month of sales drove single-family homes inventory down to a 1.4-months supply compared to 3.4 months a year earlier. That is the lowest inventory level of all time.
emphasis added
Inventory declined 43.2% year-over-year from 39,777 in March 2020 to 22,602 in March 2021. This is just 1.4 months of supply.
These sales were for contracts that were mostly signed in January and February