Houston's September Market Numbers: Rates Above 7%, Prices Steady

The Houston Association of Realtors released its September numbers on October 14. Single-family home sales across the Greater Houston area came in at 7,030, down 5.7% from a year earlier. The median price was essentially unchanged at $325,000, and the average price rose 0.7% to $421,311. There were 40,192 homes for sale, up 6.3%, which works out to 5.5 months of inventory compared with 5.1 a year ago. Homes took an average of 58 days to sell, up from 56 last September.

The main change is mortgage rates. Freddie Mac's 30-year average was 6.86% in September, up from 6.35% a year ago, and the weekly rate passed 7% in the last week of the month and reached 7.40% in the second week of October. HAR calculates that on a median-priced home with 20% down, the monthly principal and interest payment went from about $1,622 to $1,705. Pending sales fell 11.6%, so I expect closings to stay slower for the next month or two. For sellers, that makes pricing correctly from the first day more important than it was in the spring, because buyers have more homes to compare. For buyers, more inventory and longer market times mean more room to negotiate on price, repairs or closing costs.

If you want to know what these numbers mean for your street or your price range, call or text me at 281-818-8177, or book a time with me at le-rocks.com.