Texas homebuyers still have upper hand

But median price of a house rises in state as sales decline

By JENNIFER HILLER SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWS

The real estate market across Texas remains resoundingly … OK — neither boomtown nor a minefield of foreclosures.

Across the state, home prices generally rose in the first three months of the year even as the number of sales dipped, according to the Texas Quarterly Housing Report from the Texas Association of Realtors, released Monday.

The median price of a Texas house reached $143,300, up 1.3 percent from the same three months in 2010. But the number of home sales across the state dropped 7.3 percent, to 40,192.

"While Texas has not been untouched by the recent economic downturn as indicated by the decrease in sales, it is encouraging to see home prices hold their value in the first quarter," Dwight Hale, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors, said in a prepared release.

The median home price rose in Austin, Dallas and San Antonio, but dipped in Houston and Fort Worth.

Sales volume was down in all of the major cities compared with the first quarter of 2010, when the market was boosted by federal tax credits to homebuyers of up to $8,000.

And Texas homebuyers still have the upper hand in negotiations.

The state has 7.5 months of inventory on the market, meaning that it would take that long to sell the listed homes at the current pace. The market is considered to be balanced between buyers and sellers around the six-month level.

Buyer's markets continue in most of the major cities, with inventories of 6.7 months in Dallas, 7.6 months in Houston, 7.1 months in Fort Worth and eight months in San Antonio.

But in Austin, the level of inventory dipped to six months, indicating that Austin soon could be returning to a seller's market.

And Galveston's inventory, which has been among the highest in the state, started dropping. It was at 14.8 months, down from 19.7 months in the first quarter of 2010.

The Texas Quarterly Housing Report uses statistics from 47 multiple listing services in markets throughout the state. The report includes data for single-family home sales.

 

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