For nearly the past decade, it's been a rocky road to buy a home. Now, trends show that could be changing, and renting, might be on the way out.
TexasRenters.com's Sam Upchurch said more people are qualifying for loans because mortgage companies are having looser standards, again.
“We’re seeing the trend where there are more homebuyers and we’re seeing the start of home prices rise fairly significantly in the Houston market. Because of that, the market for rentals is slightly slower than it has been previously,” said Upchurch.
Upchurch said the housing market is up in Houston.
“The rental market is strong. It’s not as strong as it was in 2015 when the economy was really going very strongly because of high oil prices and a lot of high paying jobs coming into the Houston market,” said Upchurch.
He said it could be safer to stay in a rental since pay raises aren't going up and you know you won't have cash for repairs and home improvements after you buy. If you plan to buy, be prepared to stay in the home for at least five years.
Upchurch said Houston has a lot of foreign buyers who are parking their money here because it's safe, and then they rent the houses out.