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Houston

Houston brokers to sellers: Lower your expectations

Buyers no longer lined up to bid as interest rate hikes take effect

Christopher Johns and Shad Bogany (Redfin, LinkedIn)
Christopher Johns and Shad Bogany (Redfin, LinkedIn)

Sales of single-family homes in Houston registered the biggest drop since the pandemic-driven shutdowns of early 2020.

High prices and higher mortgage rates have cut buyers out of the market, says the Houston Chronicle. Yet while inventories are growing and homes are staying on the market longer, price cuts have yet to take hold.

In June, the number of active listings in the Bayou City was 27.4 percent higher than the same time last year, according to the Houston Association of Realtors–a reversal from the

“Now that it’s slowed down, buyers have a lot more choices,” said Shad Bogany, a realty agent with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene. “In the past, they were standing in line to bid higher. Now we’re not seeing it.”

The number of single-family home sales fell by 17 percent to 8,370 sales in July compared with a year earlier, according to the realtor group’s latest report. It was the biggest percentage drop since May 2020, when sales plunged 25 percent amid pandemic lockdowns.

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Christopher Johns, an agent with Redfin who sells homes in the Katy, Richmond and Sugar Land areas, said the market has started to normalize as interest rates settle in. Now, sellers have to adjust their expectations and probably lower their prices.

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“A $400,000, nice house––priced well––will sell within three weeks,” Johns said. “That same house in January of this year would have had 20 offers and sold in four days.”

The chill in the Houston housing market is primarily affecting first-time homebuyers and the middle class. The only housing segment to register a gain in sales in July was the $500,000 to $1 million category, which went up by 40.6 percent.

— Maddy Sperling