Home prices go up while listings decline

Strong demand and a slim supply of homes for sale drove up asking prices across Texas and the U.S. in December, according to realtor.com.

“I’ve got more buyers than I have homes to sell them,” said Shad Bogany, a broker associate with Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate Gary Greene in Houston. “We just don’t have the inventory.”

The number of homes for sale fell nearly 40 percent nationally to fewer than 700,000 in December, ahistoric low, as buyer demand remained strong during the holidays, according to the real estate listing site of the National Association of Realtors. The typical home sold in 66 days, or 13 days faster than last year.

“The shortage of homes for sale has been an ongoing issue for the last couple of years, but in December the combination of the holiday inventory slowdown and the pandemic buying trend caused it to dip to its lowest level in history,” Danielle Hale, chief economist at realtor.com, said in an announcement. “Looking forward, we could see new lows in the next couple of months as buyers remain relatively active, but a surge of new COVID cases may slow the number of sellers entering the market.”

Active listings in Houston were down 33.5 percent year over year in December. The market got even tighter in other Texas cities, with active listings falling 55.9 percent Austin, 51.9 percent in Dallas and 45.6 percent in San Antonio.

“The winners are people who are selling expensive homes,” Bogany said. “The losers are firsttime homebuyers where the price has gone up.”

Low interest rates— below 3 percent — have been a saving grace, but “if you can find any houses to

buy, then you can’t take advantage of them,” Bogany said, adding that entry-level buyers compete with investors for houses.

Nationally, the median listing price increased 13.4 percent over last year to $340,000. Homes in the Houston metro were listed for a median price of $329,750, a 9.9 percent rise over December 2019.

Austin was among cities with the largest price gains, rising 20 percent for the year to $420,000. Other gainers were Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., up 17.2 percent to $475,050, and New Orleans, up 16.8 percent to $325,050.

The median list price in the Dallas metro area increased by 5.5 percent over the year to $354,045 in December. The price in San Antonio rose 3.7 percent over the year to $295,300.

The largest gains in list prices in the U.S. were in the Northeast (12.2 percent), followed by the West (10.4 percent), Midwest (8.6 percent) and South (6.7 percent).

Homes in Houston stayed on the market a median of 57 days, or 12 fewer than December 2019.

The number of newly listed homes was down 0.8 per---

cent nationally when compared with last year. New listings in Houston were down by 3.5 percent in December, compared with a decline of 4 percent for the South region.

The Western and Northeastern markets had the most new listings hitting the market. San Jose, Calif., led the nation among large cities with the biggest increase in new listings, at 123.8 percent, followed by San Francisco at 98.9 percent.

Cities with the biggest declines in new listings were Nashville, Tenn. (-19.9 percent), Memphis, Tenn. (-18.5 percent) and Charlotte, N.C., (-16 percent).

“We eventually expect to see improvements in the supply of homes for sale, especially in the second half of the year,” said Hale, the economist. “Until then, finding a home will continue tobe a top challenge for buyers across all price ranges.”