The state of Texas is starting to show upward growth in the housing market, and that’s a good thing. The Texas Association of Realtors, affiliated with the National Association of Realtors, announced that home sales for existing single-family homes was up 4% over the 1st quarter of 2010 from the same period in 2009. They also announced that the number of homes with signed contracts has gone up 5.7% since November.
Adding to that, the median home price has gone up 3.13% and is now sitting around $14,500. When home prices are up, it means that the inventory of homes available is probably shrinking, which reverses a trend of foreclosures that dominated the news in 2009. One of the things going for Texas is that the unemployment rate isn’t as high as in other states, which means there’s more money around for real estate purchases.
The Houston area showed the same 4% growth in home sales as the rest of the state. The Dallas – Fort Worth area showed a growth of 27% from the previous year, with the median price of homes up 7%.
One reality that will have to be watched, however, is that most of the growth came in March, and with the pending end to the federal tax credit, that might have driven some of the home sales. April figures should also be good, but it will be interesting to see how May sales go. It’s interesting to note that there wasn’t a great push in April for people applying for the tax credit.
There are plenty of homes available across the state at great prices.
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Mitch writes on real estate, finance, and many other things.