HOUSTON — (January 11, 2023) — Despite charging through a pandemic with no let-up in sales, Houston real estate could not withstand the powerful economic headwinds that began swirling in 2022 and ultimately ended a long and much-admired record-setting run. On top of limited affordable housing inventory, mortgage rates were perhaps the biggest culprit, rising throughout most of the year as the Federal Reserve drove a steady campaign of interest rate hikes to tame soaring inflation. The move prompted many consumers to postpone homebuying plans – in many cases diverting to the rental market which thrived as a result. While mortgage rates have fallen steadily since surpassing seven percent in November, home sales continue to slow and will likely remain down through at least the early part of 2023.
Single-family home sales for 2022 were down almost 11 percent compared to 2021’s record pace, marking the first year that Houston housing has been in the red since 2015. Despite the sales slowdown, prices rising to new highs in the $400,000s kept 2022’s total dollar volume close to last year’s record level.
According to HAR’s December/Full-Year 2022 Housing Market Update, single-family home sales fell 10.9 percent to 95,113. Sales of all property types totaled 117,572, down 10.7 percent from 2021. Total dollar volume dropped just 1.5 percent to $39.3 billion versus $40 billion in 2021.
nine straight months of decline
We’re fortunate that this hasn’t effected our area!
I haven’t paid attention to the Houston proper housing market, in years.
Who’s article is this?
Thx.
The U.S. housing market showed a sign of early recovery, as pending home sales of rose for the first time in 14 months.
Pending home sales rose 2.9 percent in December, the first month-over-month increase since October 2021, according to data from Redfin on Jan. 25.
The decline in pending sales also eased for the first time in 10 months, to 30.9 percent from a record 35.1 percent drop in November.
“The small uptick in pending sales suggests some homebuyers returned to the market at the tail end of 2022 after demand plummeted in the fall,” said Chen Zhao, Redfin’s economics research lead.
“That's mostly because slowing inflation has driven mortgage rates down to about 6 percent from a peak of over 7 percent, giving buyers some relief and sending the typical buyer's payment down nearly $200. Along with the dollar decline in monthly payments, rates traveling down instead of up are helping some sidelined buyers get back into a house-hunting mindset.”