For prospective Houston home sellers who have been holding back, waiting for the past months’ chaotic events to quiet down, last week ended with an array of encouraging signs. The national indicators that underpin the Houston real estate climate were almost uniformly promising. After the dislocations that have characterized most of 2020, now, at midsummer, home sellers are finding conditions that look to be much less equivocal.
The realtor.com website offered a concise summary. On Saturday, Chief Economist Danielle Hale’s end-of-week podcast ticked off the series of optimistic indicators:
• July employment figures showed continuing gains, with the economy bringing back more than 40% of the jobs lost since the pandemic’s onset.
• Unemployment claims continued to decline.
• Financial markets notched “the eighth new record low this year for mortgage rates”—2.88% on 30-year fixed mortgages, per Freddie Mac.
• For the first time this year, monthly data from the mortgage bankers showed a slight improvement in credit availability—an indication that “the worst in the credit pullback could be behind us.”
• By the beginning of August, median listing prices across the nation had risen a full 9.4% over the same period in 2019—considerably more than most had forecast, and a new high for the year.
• Despite the robust bottom lines, the typical listed property sold four days faster than a year ago.
The numbers supported the economist’s unabashedly optimistic summary: “The housing market,” she wrote, “has tipped in favor of the relatively small number of home sellers who are actively participating right now.”
For future Houston home sellers who have been uncertain about how the pandemic would affect the nation’s real estate market, clearer signs would be hard to imagine. As Hale put it, in this market, “buyers have to act quickly”—and the same could be said for sellers.
In other words, this looks like a very good time to give us a call! Rinnovare Realty, LLC at (832)-445-4957 or visit us on the web at: www.RinnovareRealty.com .