There may be a better place than Houston to invest in Real Estate…
We just have not found it yet!
2017 year end reports are coming in and the results for the Greater Houston Area are simply amazing. Bullet points from both Houston Association of Realtors and the Greater Houston Partnership confirm what so many of us who work and live in this amazing area already know:
Houston is the most resilient economy and population in the world.
Hurricane Harvey visited us this past year and by the time it reached us in the Houston area the Hurricane had downgraded to a tropical storm and a prolific rain and flooding event.
Indeed, we received historic amounts of rain that managed to break records in an area that is no stranger to these types of events. Big, Bad Storm, dropped a lot of water and damaged a lot of properties right around Labor Day weekend.
A Record Year for Houston
Despite that, here are the amazing numbers from 2017 because as they say here in Houston “This was not our first rodeo (or flood)”
- 2017 proved to be a record year for Houston home sales with 79,117 single-family homes sold versus 76,450 in 2016, the last record-setting year. That represents an increase of 3.5 percent
- Total dollar volume for single-family homes in 2017 rose 6.5 percent to $23 billion
- December single-family home sales climbed 4.1 percent year-over-year with 6,875 units sold
- Total December property sales increased 3.5 percent to 8,125 units Total December property sales increased 3.5 percent to 8,125 units
- Single-family homes months of inventory declined slightly to a 3.2-months supply
- Months of inventory began the year at a 3.3-months supply, and while it grew to a 4.3-months supply just before Harvey struck the region, it ended 2017 at a 3.2-months supply. Months of inventory estimates the number of months it will take to deplete current active inventory based on the prior 12 months sales activity. 6 months inventory is considered a “balanced” market.
Fortunately, the setbacks resulting from this historic weather catastrophe were much shorter-lived than anticipated. By the end of September – just four weeks after Harvey hit – the “Houston Strong” housing market saw home sales rebound and the greatest rental activity of all time.
The positive momentum continued through the final months of 2017.
Houston’s Economy Keeps Climbing
If you are asking what is driving these incredible results in the Housing industry in Houston you don’t need to look any further than the Houston Economy. The GHP forecast for 2018 is for 45,500 jobs to be created in the Greater Houston Area.
They cite the blossoming National economy but then go beyond that to note several uniquely Houston advantages.
- Global Trade, Houston is 2nd only to NY in value of exports and the Port of Houston ranks first in US in tonnage. 5,000 Houston area companies are engaged in Global commerce. Global trade supports nearly 450,000 jobs in the region.
- Job growth is forecast in 14 sectors of Houston’s economy in 2018.
- And let’s not forget the Brookings Institute study that showed Houston area 2nd only to San Jose, California for economic growth between 2005 and 2015.
If you want the Critical Mass and economic diversity that the Country’s largest metropolitan areas give you but you like the low cost of entry and ownership that you get in small Mid-West and Southern markets, then Houston is where you need to bring your investment dollars in 2018.
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