The Lone Star State is all alone with its surprisingly adequate levels of available houses for sale. All over Texas, it seems there are enough homes on the market to satisfy demand, even in light of 2016 record sales of residential properties throughout the state. The Real Estate Center at A & M University cites that “…a 6.5 month inventory of homes represents a market in which supply and demand is balanced” and a 6.5 month inventory of homes is just about what Texas cities have to offer the buying public.
Austin, TX is the number one city in terms of having an abundance of homes for sale. Its home values are also up a whooping 24% over last year. Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth and San Antonio are also showing an increase in inventory, respectively. Even Alamo shows an increase in home availability of 16.4% over 2016. All these Lone State cities contradict Zillow’s February, 2017, Real Estate Market Report that indicates home availability supplies are down nationally by 3%.
What are some of the reasons that Texas cities have more available homes to sell than other cities around the country? It seems there are several.
- Texas cities were not hit as hard in the recession and housing crisis as others. Therefore, Lone Star cities rebounded more quickly than other cities, according to the Dallas Morning News.. Also a result of taking a milder hit, Texas has been adding jobs longer and faster than other cities.
- More job opportunities and more inherent opportunities for affordable housing led more new transplants from harder hit states to come to TX.
- Based upon current construction trends, many real estate professionals expect the number of homes for sale to increase as new inventory comes onto the market, according to the Houston Association of Realtors. Even out-of-state home builders like Taylor Morrison are coming to TX to build $300,000. – $500,000. price point homes in Dallas because “…the research has shown that (this price point) is underserved…” in Texas’s metro areas.
Austin, considered by many to be a bellwether city in TX despite top tier prices, “…is just now beginning to catch up to itself after years of unprecedented (real estate) sales growth,” says Brady Guthrie, the 2017 President of the Austin Board of Realtors. A comfortable inventory of homes available for sale will “…help us normalize to more stable, consistent housing conditions here…” in Texas as a whole.
