Concerns have been expressed for the past couple of months over falling oil prices and the impact it would have on the Houston real estate market. Anyone who lived in the greater Houston area during the 1980’s can remember the downturn and the effect it had on the real estate industry. The good news is Houston’s economy has diversified and is not as oil dependent as it once was.
HAR recently released statistics for January 2015 that show continued strength in the red hot Houston real estate market. With over 4,000 single family homes sold last month in Houston, January 2015 housing sales were up 6.1% over January 2014. Most of these sales were between the $250,000 to $500,000 price point. Sales above $500,000 did show a decline. Inventory of homes on the market remain low which is keeping prices from falling.
With all this said, several experts in the market are predicting a slow down in 2015. Dr. Ted Jones with Stewart Title sees about a 10% drop in the number of homes sales this year.