Houston continues to grow, and overall home pricing may be at a plateau.
CBAS continues to see a sustained (albeit moderate) retreat in the median home price increases across the major Texas markets. The table below summarizes The Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M’s current median home prices in the four major Texas metros. It also compares current median prices to the median observed one year ago and in February 2019, arguably the last “normal” benchmark housing market. Median prices are up very slightly Y-O-Y in Austin and DFW. Likewise, they are down slightly (-2.0%) year over year in Houston and down more meaningfully so in San Antonio (-3.6%) versus last year. The current slight year over year fluctuations in median home price in all four markets should be taken in the context that all four markets saw very robust levels of appreciation from 2019 to the present. By way of example, Houston’s negative 2% median price growth year over year comes after a five-year period over which the median home price grew by nearly 40%. Furthermore, the relative lack of resale inventory may continue to bolster the pricing power of new homes in some or all of these markets.
Of this growth, 47,693 came from Natural Increase, or “Births minus Deaths.” Another 39,644 came from Domestic Migration, or people moving to the Houston area from elsewhere in the state or the country. It is important to note that this is the strongest Domestic Migration number observed in Houston since 2015. Finally, the largest share (52,554) came from International Migration, or people moving to the Greater Houston area from other countries.