Note: Story updated below.
A Swamplot reader writes in one day early, mighty eager to get a glance at the latest Houston real estate numbers:
It seems that things must be so bad in the high end that Greenwood King’s monthly market report isn’t even out for February -and it is April!
It is basically soft core porn for real estate watchers. A girl friend of mine simply emails me an excited ‘ITS OUT!!!’ whenever it is posted.
This report is watched by everyone, because it provides a focused glimpse into the city’s Better Homes and Gardens. It is a very exclusive party list. When riff raff is even allowed in the party, it is neatly segregated from the other data: I guess “Montrose (Townhomes)” is allowed in just because it is a quirky and fun guest and “Montrose (Single Family)†needs someone to talk to.
***
Last month’s report featured a bunch of zero’s for sales in River Oaks, Southampton, and other tony neighborhoods. The result? Well it is raw data, but the overall average is a nice data point: -22% price change over the prior January, and a stunning 45% drop in volume.
Needless to say, the whole town is waiting for their invitation to the party this month. . . .
I do hope they keep posting it on the internet. I fear they will stop once it gets inconvenient.
Update, 4:48 pm: As noted in the comments, IT’S OUT!!! now.
- Greenwood King Properties January 2009 Houston Market Report (PDF) [Greenwood King]
I gave up waiting and switched to Playboy. They never miss a month and always seem to find something compelling to pique my interest, even in the worst of times.
They’ll stop when it gets ugly. They may have already.
The “High-End Market” January 2009 listings (448) vs. sales (9) numbers on page 3 are sure to be making a few people nervous.
Remember though that we mustn’t talk pessimistically about the real estate market because the mere mention of such things will jinx us – Keep Calm and Carry On
I found the February market report on the Greenwood King website and March does not come out until April 15th.
I just read the report–the West U. and River Oaks sales are terrible. I remember living in San Francisco a few years ago and the “common wisdom” was everyone wants to live in San Francisco, so prices will never go down. I wonder if these close in neighborhoods that have appreciated so much over the past few years have finally met their match. In San Francisco, it took about a year for sales to stall and sellers to finally wake up and lower prices. I wonder when this will happen here. Fortunately, I don’t need to move anytime soon .:)
The Feb. looks better than I expected. Noticed that it’s cumulative. Is that how they usually do it?
Does the real estate search on chron.com use the same designation for neighborhoods as the GK reports? If so, the number of listings in West U has about doubled in one month.
I am guessing the report had a mistake and should have started with Feb 1, not Jan 1. If it was not a mistake, sales numbers actually declined–which would be very bad news. Usually, sales increase dramatically from Jan to Feb because of seasonality. This is a pattern that usually continues through the summer. Can anyone confirm the the GK report made a mistake or if it is in fact cumulative? This is a big deal b/c a decline in sales from Feb to Jan is probably unprecedented in Houston.
The problem, especially in West U, is that the spec home builders must have felt that Houston was going to remain immune to the national crisis. Check the listings. A huge majority are spec builds. Try finding an older high quality home Inside the Loop. They are as scarce as ever.
EPIC FAIL on the part of builders.
The good news for me is that it meant I was able to purchase and older home that was being marketed “for lot value” only. I am saving the old house. A year ago, it would have been toast, likely never even making it to the listing stage.
So I’m looking at the G-K report, and I have a question. How is going from 2 sales to 0, or from 6 sales to 0, considered a “NC” (no change?)? In my book, going from a number greater than zero down to zero is a loss of 100%, so that change column should say “-100%”.
I think by “NC” they mean “not calculable”.
It’s only “not calculable” if you didn’t pass 5th grade math.