Coming off a horrendous final quarter of 2015 which saw year-over-year single-family home sales essentially drop double digit percentage points in three straight months (December 2015 only dropped 9.7 percent), and with low oil prices and subsequent layoffs on everyone’s mind, most pundits predicted a slowdown for Houston’s housing market in 2016. That couldn’t have been further from the case though, as 2016 actually picked up big time, with average and median prices rising, and sales setting a new Houston record!
HAR has released their January report which covers December and 2016 as a whole. December’s numbers were quite strong, marking a robust finish to an impressive year for the Houston housing market. Single-family home sales for the month rose to 6,628, a 5.3 percent increase over December 2015. Luxury home sales (homes priced at $500,000 and above), a segment which saw declining sales from August 2015 through October 2015, experienced a double digit year-over-year increase for the second straight month. Pending sales at the end of December rose to 4,746, an 11.7 percent jump over a year earlier. Average and median prices for single-family homes both reached all-time highs for December, climbing to $294,512 and $225,903, respectively.
December’s market was very indicative of 2016 as a whole, as numbers rose substantially across the board in 2016 just as they did in the final month of the year. Home sales increased in nine of the year’s 12 months and it all added up to a record of 76,449 single-family homes being sold in 2016, which was a 3 percent increase over 2015, and up 1.3 percent from the previous record-setting year of 2014.
As has been the case in recent years, prices were on the rise yet again in 2016, with average and median prices both increasing. Average price moved ahead 1.1 percent to $283,133, compared to $280,290 in 2015. Median price saw an even more notable jump, up 4.5 percent from $212,000 to $221,000. These higher prices, combined with record-setting sales, added up to a total dollar volume of $24.5 billion, which was 4.2 percent greater than 2015 and another all-time high for Houston. Months inventory for 2016 started and ended the year at 3.3-months supply, as the 4.0-months supply reached in July was unsustainable due to the rapid pace of home sales.
It’s pretty amazing what the Houston housing market was able to do in 2016, a year in which things like low oil prices and a controversial presidential election easily could’ve resulted in the market taking a step back. In the past, this might’ve been a serious problem, but Houston’s economic diversity has allowed the city to continue to thrive even during uncertain times, and 2016’s housing market was a clear reflection of that. HAR Chair Cindy Hamann summed it up nicely. “The year began on a cautionary note because of energy-related layoffs that did affect our higher-priced housing. But what we saw by the end of 2016 is the reflection of a truly diversified Houston economy that continues to benefit from hiring in other industries and a steady influx of consumers from markets across the country and around the world.”
Buying or selling a home or have questions about the market? Give me a call at 713.829.3052 or email me at cynthia@cynthiamullins.com.
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