January's frigid weather didn't stop Houston's home buyers, who heated up the market with the first year-over-year increase in sales since June.
Sales of single-family homes in the Houston area last month were 9.5% greater than a year earlier, the Houston Association of Realtors reported. Transactions were up in all price segments, but the greatest increases were recorded at both ends of the pricing spectrum.
Buyers snapped up 3,413 homes during the month, compared to 3,118 in January 2010. But perhaps sensing a thaw in the market, more sellers put their homes on the market in January, pushing up the inventory of unsold houses from 6.1 to 7.3 months at the current sales pace.
"Houston's residential real estate market has definitely gotten the new year off to a healthy start," said Carlos P. Bujosa, HAR chairman and VP at Transwestern. "Housing inventory appears to be balancing out, but the economy as a whole remains somewhat fragile, so I believe we need to see how home sales perform in the next month or two before being able to accurately predict what 2011 has in store for us."
Foreclosure property sales reported in the multiple listing service declined 4.7% in January compared to one year earlier. Foreclosures comprised 24.7% of all property sales in January, down from the 26.7% share they held at the beginning of 2010.
