- During the downturn Houston was one of the best performing metros
- Performing well during the downturn, rather than recent, rapid price appreciation is the reason for the metro's recovery
- Texas has three major metros whose housing markets have fully recovered
The Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land housing market has recovered better than almost any large metro in the nation.
According to a market-by-market breakdown from Homes.com, Houston’s index value reached 168.60 during August, which is more than 23 points higher than its value in October 2009, the market’s previous housing peak.
The metro is said to be 113.06 percent recovered from its trough, which occurred during February 2011. Only the Denver and Dallas-Fort Worth metro areas have rebounded more from their bottoming outs.
Houston’s recovery can be attributed to its overall stability through the years, rather than to rapid year-to-year price appreciation. When the national appreciation rate was moving backward following the housing peak, Houston’s rate was steady, according to Christi Borden, a Houston Association Realtor board member with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate.
Spanning October 2009 (peak) to February 2011 (trough), the market’s index score only fluctuated by 5.49.
Of the nation’s top 30 metros, only San Antonio saw a smaller gap between its peak and trough index scores, 5.23.
Consistency seems to describe Houston, as the metro only saw a 3.92 percent change in its index score spanning August 2014 to August 2015. Of the top 30 metros only five saw lower year-over-year increases in their price scores.
