CORPUS CHRISTI – Corpus Christi Association of Realtors CEO Brian Morales talked to 3NEWS last week about the city’s 2023 housing market and what to expect in 2024.
“The market itself is down. So, you’re seeing fewer sales, fewer closings. Overall, value market is down. Prices, however, have continued to stay strong,” Morales said.
He said one of the main reasons the local market is down is because of increased mortgage rates, which were at an all-time low during the COVID era.
“Since that time mortgage rates have gone up from two, two and a half percent, all the way up to seven and eight percent and that’s been the case for the last year or so. When you have those rates, it just gets more expensive for those folks who are trying to get a mortgage to afford their homes,” he said.
Though mortgage rates were up in 2023, Morales said local home prices fell.
“Price is down from 2022,” he said. “The middle of the year is when we saw the peak in the median price in our local market. Since that time, it has come down a little bit and we had a little bit of a dip early in the year in the first quarter, but since then, it’s sort of hit a plateau and stayed relatively stable for the last nine months.”
In its 2024 Texas Real Estate Forecast, the Texas Real Estate Research Center expects average overall home price levels at the statewide level to remain flat or, at most, dip slight but stay near $340,000.