The houston housing market holds steady in february !

[Jack Lance]

Originally Posted by peterlemonjello

Not Houston's Darth Vader, I just see Houston for what it is. Its got a lot of positives I enjoy, but our housing market isn't one of them right now. In the future again Im sure it will rebound, but were at the mercy of oil.


We don't have a diverse economy. If we did we our housing market wouldn't depend so much on the oil market.

The Greater Houston economy definitely needs further diversification I would never argue that it doesn't but I think it may prove to be more diversified and resilient than what many thought.

[rb29335i]

Houses I like are still moving pretty quickly in the 3-400k range in the heights

[marksmu]

Originally Posted by peterlemonjello

Not Houston's Darth Vader, I just see Houston for what it is. Its got a lot of positives I enjoy, but our housing market isn't one of them right now. In the future again Im sure it will rebound, but were at the mercy of oil.


We don't have a diverse economy. If we did we our housing market wouldn't depend so much on the oil market.

Houston is a great town, and I think you are going to find that while oil has a huge impact on our economy that the effect of the low price oil is not going to be as dramatic as you think.

Oil as a whole makes up 30-40% of our economy....that is huge! BUT its much less than the 60-70% that it was in the 80's....and it ignores a major factor. While upstream is doing particularly poorly right now, downstream is doing excellent. Refineries, pipelines, exports, etc are all doing fantastic. The east side of town has a massive shortage of skilled labor at the moment, and not nearly enough people who are willing to do the refinery work.

Add to that the giant expansion at the port of Houston, as well as the growth in our medical center, and the LNG export facility in Freeport, we are going to be just fine.

This is as bad as oil is going to get....We are at the bottom....the layoffs have not all occurred, but Oil has found a bottom....I predict, and its just a prediction, that overvalued areas that skyrocketed, will come down 8-10% suburbs will stagnate, and new home builds will fall off....but there won't be people fleeing their homes like in the 80's and Houston will not become another Detroit.

Our economy is very diverse...the problem is that oil jobs pay much better than non-oil jobs, so there will be a small adjustment.

[usc619]

I guess if you keep telling yourself that, eventually you'll believe it lol

[descovy]

I think the fact that the sub $500k houses are holding steady is proof that our economy is diverse.

When average wages at many oil companies exceed $100k of course those folks buy the over $500k houses. But for the rest of us outside of oil, our average wages are lower. We buy those $250k houses. Not oil execs.

I live in a $250-300k neighborhood. Our neighbors by and large are in industries outside of oil.

[gwarnecke]

Prices seem to be holding steady on the west side, although homes are taking longer to sell. The homes that aren't moving at all are those with major issues (on a fault line or busy street, wonky floorplan, etc). These homes would've been tough to sell even in 2013 or 2014.

One observation is that in the 500-1 million range, homes are ALWAYS selling below asking price (but not for much less than the home would have sold for in 2013-2014, necessarily). If you're looking in that price range, now seems to be a good time to buy.

[AVENSAB727]

http://www.bizjournals.com/houston/m...tter-next.html

[right]

^ most of job gains will be from "Leisure & Hospitality" and "Wholesale & Retail Trade". Those are low paying jobs and most of these potential new workers are not in the market for a house.

[ma23peas]

Originally Posted by gwarnecke

Prices seem to be holding steady on the west side, although homes are taking longer to sell. The homes that aren't moving at all are those with major issues (on a fault line or busy street, wonky floorplan, etc). These homes would've been tough to sell even in 2013 or 2014.

One observation is that in the 500-1 million range, homes are ALWAYS selling below asking price (but not for much less than the home would have sold for in 2013-2014, necessarily). If you're looking in that price range, now seems to be a good time to buy.

Well, I wasn't until you mentioned it We were looking in 300-400..but from an investment view...wondering if we should go higher than we planned if this is our 'forever' home. Would builders be more flexible with 'deals' than private owners? I have noticed in our new home search that some properties in the 494k were knocked down to 449...that's a fair chunk...just not looking for that much house as we're nearing empty nest...but a deal is a deal...hmmm...