HOUSTON – According to the Houston Association of Realtors’ (HAR) July 2021 Market Update, local home sales appear to be down from last year because of a surge in delayed transactions that closed last July. However, last month had one of the highest number of home sales of all time.
Single-family home sales were down by 6.1 percent from July 2020, with 10,159 units sold versus last year’s historic 10,822 sales. However, sales were up 13.9 percent over July 2019.
On a year-to-date basis, area home sales currently exceed 2020’s record pace by 19.1 percent.
The median single-family home price climbed 13.9 percent to $309,910, while average price increased 15.3 percent to $389,197. That marks the second highest pricing of all time behind last month’s record-setting figures.
According to HAR, homes priced at $750,000 and above had the largest jump in sales, increasing 36.7 percent year over year. The sale of homes priced between $500,000 and $750,000 rose 18.9 percent.
Sales of all types fell 3.7 percent year over year, totaling 12,383 in July 2021. That is the third greatest volume of all time behind June 2021 (13,115) and July 2020 (12,865).
In July, the “close-to-original-price ratio” for single-family homes was 100.2 percent, only 0.1 percent down from June 2021’s record number. This indicates that the majority of buyers paid above list price for homes on the market.
The Texas Real Estate Research Center has more information on housing: