Texas Real Estate Continues to be a Strong Investment

January 27, 2016

Forbes

According to a recent article in Forbes, Texas is the state with the second-greatest number of cities on the Best Buy list… San Antonio was listed at number 3, where homes average $201,000. While the rest of the country was in the depths of the recession, Texas experienced only a shallow one, and bounced back with force. The energy boom helped fuel job growth; even with gas prices now way down, San Antonio is doing well overall thanks to their diversified economy.

The Gulf Coast has welcomed a boom in petrochemical construction, and the state is seeing growth in leisure and hospitality, both activities reportedly fueled by lower gas prices. San Antonio has financial firms and data centers, and year-over-year job growth is strong (3.7%). People continue to move to the Lone Star State. Housing prices are rising but compared to the rest of the nation, still relatively cheap.

February 19, 2016

Houston Association of Realtors Report

The Houston housing market kicked off 2016 with a strong month of sales, only about 2 percent off the January record, despite the ongoing effects of strains in the energy industry. Single-family homes priced between $150,000 and $250,000 saw year-over-year sales increase by nearly 9 percent. “A lot of folks have nervously anticipated that falling oil prices would have a devastating effect on real estate, but so far, the Houston market has weathered the energy downturn without dramatic shifts in sales and pricing,” said HAR Chairman Mario Arriaga with First Group. “The most noticeable impact has been declines in the luxury market, but mid-range housing actually saw a healthy sales volume in January and inventory levels grew. HAR will continue to closely monitor the economic climate.”

In the February edition of The Economy at a Glance, the Greater Houston Partnership reports that 23,200 jobs were added across the Houston metropolitan area in 2015, an increase of less than 1 percent, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. GHP is forecasting the creation of approximately 22,000 jobs in 2016. In January, the single-family home average price eked out a fractional 0.3 percent year-over-year increase, reaching $262,663. while the median price — the figure at which half of the homes sold for more and half sold for less — rose 5.3 percent to $200,000. Both figures represent all-time highs for a January in Houston.