Houston Real Estate in July: Recovery Trend strengthens

In what is definitely the strongest showing of the year, the Houston Real Estate market continued on the positive trend that started 2 months ago. The recovery trend seems to be getting stronger as the decline in sales is now down , prices are continuing to climb, inventories are healthy and foreclosures continue to slow.

Data and Meaning

Median Sales Prices rose 2% to $164,800 compared to July 2008 for the third month in a row. Remember, prices rose the same amount in June, about half that in May, they were virtually unchanged in April and they had been falling prior to that. Further evidence of a positive upward trend.
Total Property Sales dropped just 5% to 5,402 compared to July of last year. This is by far the most telling of stats for this month. Sales had been dropping and a much steeper rate of 20-30% in the first six months of the year. June showed improvement at 15% and that trend strengthened in July. If sales move into positive territory combined with steady or rising prices, the tide will have turned in the opposite direction.
Absoption Rate, an indicator of inventory, dropped by 25% to 5 months. Inventory levels have been in stable territory throughout the year and now we’re seeing declines in it – surely a sign we welcome these days. Also average days on market for single family homes dropped 4% to a solid 76 days.
The share of sales attributed to foreclosures continued to slow further and now they account for just 16.6% of total sales. At the beginning of this year, they accounted for double the current rate.