Houston-area Homes Sales Rise…Again!

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Hot off the press from the HAR (Houston Association of Realtors) Newsroom:  Houston-area home sales rise for a fourth straight month!  As I have been reporting all year, things are going very well in Houston.  The latest MLS statistics for September 2011 state that sales of single-family homes in the Houston area have increased nearly 17 percent as compared to last year this time.  And, this represents the fourth consecutive month of increased sales volume.  Our months of inventory also fell to the lowest level since May 2010.  At the same time, pending sales rose, while active listings declined.  According to the report, “All are considered signs of a healthy and balanced housing market.”

The average price of a single-family home in the Houston area for September 2011 was $213,334, which is the highest level ever for a September in Houston.  The median price was up 1.6 percent to $157,500, which is also a September high for Houston.

The sale of all property types in Houston were up 15.9 percent from last September, and there were 5,469 total property sales.  As for the total dollar volume in September, that figure was also up 16 percent at $1.1 billion.  Click here to read the September MLS Press Release

Being extremely knowledgeable about the state of our current Houston real estate market is an important facet to our relocation business.  As we work with transferees and relocation companies to market and sell properties, a key factor is always pricing a property correctly to sell within a very short time frame.  This is not the time to price a property at a high price and ask for price reduction after price reduction.  We are expected to evaluate a property, devise an aggressive marketing strategy, and price it to sell at the onset.  This is also an important element to the relocation training that I provide to our agents.  Our next relocation training and certification class is tomorrow on Worldwide ERC’s BMA (Broker Market Analysis).  I have found this to be one of the single most important and beneficial relocation training classes that I teach.  (Feel free to reach out to me for more information about our Relocation Training and Certification Program).

We have been very fortunate in Houston to have a much more stable real estate market as compared to other parts of the country.  From a relocation standpoint, we have been equally as fortunate as mobility to the Houston area continues at a rapid pace.  Transferees are often surprised by real estate prices in Houston, and the fact that they can often get quite a bit of home for their money.

We certainly have an active real estate market in Houston, and it’s great to be able to report that our home sales are consistently on the rise.  As a company, John Daugherty, Realtors has been exceeding our sales goals nearly every month so far this year.  Our relocation business has also enjoyed a huge increase this year as compared to 2010, and I expect it to continue to rise through the end of the year and deep into 2012.

It’s hard to believe that we are already in the fourth quarter of the year, but thankfully this has been a very fast a furious year, and Houston is still the place to be!