The energy bust continues to seem ever more distant, especially in the local housing market where home sales and prices have been rising month after month.
In March, sales were up 11.7% compared with the same month last year and the median price of a single-family home got close to its all-time record, monthly figures released Wednesday show.
Real estate agents sold 7,013 single-family homes last month at a median price of $227,530, up 5.8%, the Houston Association of Realtors reported. The highest median price on record — $233,000 — was reached last summer.
The association notes, however, that the March sales gain is in comparison to a time in 2016 when the market was on edge about how falling oil prices would affect the local economy.
Still, housing has remained on an upward trajectory since late last fall.
The strongest sales activity in March took place among homes in the $250,000 to $499,999 range, followed by the high-end market, which recorded its fifth consecutive month of sales gains.
Additional housing inventory provided a boost to sales as well. The number of available properties for sale grew 9.9% from March 2016 to 37,926.
"A healthy pace of new listings helped inventory levels grow, which is critical if we are to maintain the positive momentum," HAR's chair Cindy Hamann with Heritage Texas Properties said in a statement. The housing data is tracked through association's Multiple Listing Service, which tracks transactions throughout Harris, Fort Bend and Montgomery counties, as well as parts of Brazoria, Galveston, Waller and Wharton counties.
Months inventory, which measures the time it would take to sell everything on the market, grew to a 3.8-month supply in March from 3.5 months a year ago. The U.S. as a whole also has a 3.8-month supply, according to recent figures from the National Association of Realtors.
