Houston Real Estate Market Report – 2nd Quarter 2010

[Norhill Realty]

Norhill Realty presents our 2nd Quarter Market Report for the Greater Houston area. Norhill's Market Report tracks several key neighborhoods within Greater Houston's Inner Belt, and breaks down the number of sales, median days on market, average sales price, and the months of inventory. We then compare the 1st Quarter figures with those of the same quarter from the previous year.

The Houston real estate market has definitely improved in the past 12 months. The 2nd Quarter of 2010 has performed much better than the 2nd Quarter of 2009. In 22 of the 32 neighborhoods, the number of single family home sales have increased. Over half of those neighborhoods have seen an increase in average home prices for single family homes. Furthermore, 15 of the 32 neighborhoods have seen a decline in inventory levels with should continue to prop up prices.

On the Townhome/Condominium front, the improvement was even more pronounced. In 22 of the 30 neighborhoods, townhome sales increased. In 20 of those neighborhoods, the number of sales increased by double digits. Despite the increase in sales, this has not helped support prices. With many homebuilders slashing prices to clear inventory, a majority of neighborhoods have seen a decline in average Townhome/Condominium prices. This price slashing may be working since 19 of the 30 neighborhoods Norhill tracks saw a decline in inventory levels from 2nd Quarter of 2009.

Much of the performance in 2nd Quarter will be attributed in the Homebuyer Tax credit that expired in April and continued low interest rates. Although the Tax credits have expired, we still see some continued good performance through the end of year, as interest rates remain very low.