- Houston appears to be one of the top-performing markets nationally in terms of home sales.
- Agents can expect sales activity to continue to slow in the South, especially considering levels of inventory.
- These markets are still significantly up on a year-over-year basis, however.
Reports from various Realtor associations indicate the peak of the sales season has passed in most Southern-located markets, with the exception of Houston.
The 7,454 single-family homes that sold in Houston during August represented the eighth-strongest month the market has ever recorded. Additionally, the sales figure is the highest ever recorded in any August, according to the Houston Association of Realtors.
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What’s driving this late-season peak? It could be the 64,000-plus jobs gained during the last 12 months despite the woes of the oil industry. Since 2013, Houston’s population has grown by roughly 156,000 people.
The Atlanta market saw a similar number of homes trade during August — 7,038 — but this transaction volume was down modestly from July, according to the Georgia Multiple Listing Service.
That’s not to say August wasn’t a strong-performing month, as activity was up 11.9 percent when compared to the same month last year, when 6,291 homes traded.
Supply is still down in the market, with an inventory of roughly 4.1 months.
Similar to Atlanta, Orlando saw the volume of single-family sales increase noticeably on a year-over-year basis in August; however, sales activity trailed July.
The 3,094 homes sold in Orlando during August represented a more than 26 percent rise in activity when compared to the same month last year. At the same time, this figure trails July’s activity by more than 13 percent, according to the Orlando Regional Realtor Association.
Even if month-to-month sales activity is slowing, San Antonio has seen 12 percent more homes trade so far this year.
Of the 18,576 homes sold year to date, 2,551 traded in August, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors. Roughly 51 percent of the sales that occurred in August were priced below $200,000.
