April marks the third straight month of positive sales and the biggest volume gain of 2019.
Goldwater Bank branch manager and certified mortgage planner Chris Nooney said there's not really one area that's selling better than another.
"In town, Rice Military area, Heights, Barton Oaks, Spring Branch area really are on fire. If you go out more to the suburban areas, Katy is still doing well, the Bridgelands area in Cypress, and there actually has been quite a bit of movement northeast towards Kingwood," said Nooney.
He said some of the biggest bargains buyers can get right now are in the south Katy area.
"Foreclosure rates has been about 1.4% and a lot of this is due to the issues that people suffered through Hurricane Harvey," said Nooney.
Housing inventory grew to its highest level since last September, keeping up with consumer demand midway through the spring buying season.
Last month, luxury homes (priced at $750,000 and above) drew the greatest volume of sales followed closely by homes in the $150,000 to $250,000 range.
Houston Real Estate Highlights in April
- Single-family home sales rose 7.8 percent year-over-year, with 7,586 units sold, marking the third consecutive month of positive sales and the biggest volume increase of 2019;
- On a year-to-date basis, single-family home sales are 2.2 percent ahead of 2018’s record pace;
- Days on Market (DOM) for single-family homes edged up from 56 to 57 days;
- Total property sales increased 7.8 percent, with 9,063 units sold;
- Total dollar volume jumped 9.6 percent to about $2.7 billion;
- The single-family home median price rose 2.1 percent to $245,000, achieving an April high;
- The single-family home average price was up 1.9 percent to an April high of $310,676 – the second highest average of all time;
- Single-family homes months of inventory reached a 4.0-months supply, up from 3.5 months last April and the most plentiful level since September 2018. For comparison, the national inventory is at a 3.9-months supply, according to NAR;
- Townhome/condominium sales ended seven months of declines with a flat sales volume of 595 units, the average price down 8.4 percent to $203,751 and the median price down 9.0 percent to $163,000;
- Single-family home rentals surged 12.7 percent with the average rent up less than one percent to at $1,795;
- Volume of townhome/condominium leases declined 4.4 percent with the average rent up less than one percent to $1,586.