6 Comment

• Katy Anders September 10, 2015 at 8:55 am

  It was bound to happen, right?

  In Montrose, I’ve watched for years as townhouses “starting at $700,000” have had “Sold” signs on them before the land was even cleared for building.

  But there are only so many people who can afford – or who’d want – those kind of places. And with the oil companies laying off or moving out of downtown, there can’t be THAT many new potential buyers, can there?

  It’s got to be the oil company kids who buy those things, normally. I rarely see anyone over the age of 35 moving into them.
• joel September 10, 2015 at 11:35 am

  A 4.2% downward revision for July’s sales numbers is pretty huge, was it still a record? Even with an increasing median sales price, it still seems the increasing inventory has already impacted pricing.
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  I hope Tom Plant provides an inner loop price range breakdown on inventory like he did last month. Inventory is very tight in the lower ranges and well priced/unique houses will still sell in a week, but inventory has to be close to 6 months at this point for everything $400 & up.
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  Katy, I feel like I’ve seen the opposite through my few observations with most homebuyers being in the 35 – 45 range and being new transplants to Houston. I’m assuming most buyers in the montrose area are 2nd or 3rd time homeowners trading up after selling their previous houses. With sales in general slowing those high priced homes will wait quite a bit longer to fight folks able to trade up. The reality is with near-zero job growth in Houston this year, wages will take the lead in setting the tone of the housing market and in that case there is room to fall before we’re back on a sustainable trend line.
• roadchick September 10, 2015 at 4:31 pm

  Sales of homes over $500,000 have been propping up the Houston market for months. Now that sales are starting to slow there, we’re getting a better picture of the overall market…and it’s not nearly as rosy as HAR would have us believe. At the height of the frenzied market, developers were building $1M homes left and right, while I kept wondering “did the oil boom really create that many millionaires who can afford these homes?” Answer: Obviously not.
• Toby September 11, 2015 at 12:17 am

  i think it’s funny that the knee jerk reaction to houston real estate is automatically tied to the wti index. upstream may be producing some grey hairs at the moment, but you’ll find the reciprocal downstream while financing is in the wedge. the only difference between the current shale boom bust (insert minister of truth slogan here) and the financial bust of late is that it’s still cheap to finance….. i’m more interested in knowing how many homes were purchased under arm’s vs. all the other jargon.
• Fernando September 11, 2015 at 8:00 am

  Katy, most of the people buying townhouses are empty nesters looking to downsize. Half of my direct neighbors are 50+ and most of the people who attend our neighborhood association meetings that live in said homes are in the same demographic.
• Rex September 15, 2015 at 7:58 am

  I see several types moving into these places. Older empty nesters and out of towners from Cali or the NE that dont seem to be impacted by the high prices. The ‘oil company kids’ i am seeing are mainly buying up the $300k-400k homes. I also see a fair share of homes that go right back on the market as leases.