How’s houston housing market right now (San Antonio, Midland: 2015, apartment)

[shanv3]

Originally Posted by futuregleam

I’ve been house hunting in the energy corridor and green trails in the last few months. Houses have been going under contract and closing fast in Nov, Dec 2020. But since January, things on the market are moving slower. Obviously there’re less new listings due to seasonality. But existing listings are going slower too. Are you guys seeing the same thing or it’s just the area / price range / type of house I’m looking at? I’m looking at single family houses, 3-4 bedrooms, 300-450k.
Do you guys think the housing market here is becoming less of a seller’s market or is this due to being in winter right now?

Every one wants to live in the bubble and not reducing a bit. Many resaonably priced homes go quickly but i wonder who buys. Real estate companies themselves? Only to appear few months later ?

[futuregleam]

Originally Posted by dd1153

I put 5 offers on houses last week that were first day on market. All offers were $5,000 over list price with 20% down, 800+ credit score pre approval.

0 offers accepted - was beat by other buyers waiving option period, waiving appraisal shortage, paying $10-$20k over asking price.

These homes were priced in the $250k range in Cypress

That sounds really stressful. Hopefully you’ll get a house soon.
Personally I wouldn’t waive option periods or inspection.
As far as offering price in a bidding war scenario, it’ll depend on if the listing price was low to begin with and if I REALLY like the house and location.

[Jtxg]

Originally Posted by Scientific

That's an old metric. We haven't seen 6 mos in almost a decade. A balanced market is probably now 4 or 5 mos. If inventory were to get over 5 mos supply, there'd be a meltdown.

Ok...let's go with 4-5 months being a balanced market. 1.9 months would still be a pretty strong seller's market. December of 2019 the area had a 3.9 month supply.

[Jtxg]

Originally Posted by futuregleam

That sounds really stressful. Hopefully you’ll get a house soon.
Personally I wouldn’t waive option periods or inspection.
As far as offering price in a bidding war scenario, it’ll depend on if the listing price was low to begin with and if I REALLY like the house and location.

One thing I have noticed on newer homes in the $240-$280 range - aside from the fact that they sell very quickly, is a lot of the sales are to investors in that range. The house will sell and then be up for rent the next day.

[TallGreengrass]

Originally Posted by Jtxg

One thing I have noticed on newer homes in the $240-$280 range - aside from the fact that they sell very quickly, is a lot of the sales are to investors in that range. The house will sell and then be up for rent the next day.

What part of town are you noticing this? And how often?

[futuregleam]

I’m also seeing some houses in the 200s range being flipped and selling in the low 300s in the energy corridor. Some flip houses sell quickly, some just sit there

[gwarnecke]

We're in the process of selling one of our houses, located in the Energy Corridor at the west end of Memorial Drive. The house went under contract after ~2 weeks on the market. Overall, supply is about as limited in our neighborhood as I've ever seen it, and price appreciation reflects this.

Our neighborhood was badly flooded by the reservoir releases after Hurricane Harvey, and for the first ~2 years after the hurricane it had a glut of flipped homes that kept a lid on prices. All but the shoddiest or most overpriced of these flips have sold by now. The flooding history of the neighborhood seems to be a non-issue for many buyers (for what it's worth, Harvey is the only time that the neighborhood experienced widespread flooding).

[HTownNearNative]

Originally Posted by futuregleam

Thanks for the input!
I was wondering because I found a couple houses that I like but they're overpriced to comps from the same street. I had a few back and forth with the seller of one of the houses. He's really unmotivated to sell (and I heard you can't really make an unmotivated seller change his mind). Since we're still in a seller's market, I probably shouldn't be too aggressive with offer prices going forward.

We came across a few unmotivated sellers in our home search years back. One of the homes we looked at (we didn’t make an offer on it) in Green Trails has been relisted, but photos completely unchanged from when we saw it. Makes me wonder why they can’t or won’t sell.

Certain price ranges (like below $300k) definitely attract investors and people prepared to just deal with whatever the house has because they may have the contacts to get it easily (and less expensively) fixed vs. average homebuyer who doesn’t fix houses for a living. Unfair advantage against entry level home buyers, IMHO.

[Waffleton]

Originally Posted by HTownNearNative

We came across a few unmotivated sellers in our home search years back. One of the homes we looked at (we didn’t make an offer on it) in Green Trails has been relisted, but photos completely unchanged from when we saw it. Makes me wonder why they can’t or won’t sell.

Certain price ranges (like below $300k) definitely attract investors and people prepared to just deal with whatever the house has because they may have the contacts to get it easily (and less expensively) fixed vs. average homebuyer who doesn’t fix houses for a living. Unfair advantage against entry level home buyers, IMHO.

Are you referencing the home listed for 475k?

[2peaches2oranges]

I am buying in 77077 and offered $15K less on a home that was listed 1 day, and my offer was accepted with 10K off (conventional 5% down). After the inspection, my realtor negotiated an additional $10K off the sales price to compensate for repairs. Seller pay title.

Today the appraisal came in $20K more than I am paying. I know repairs are needed, big items - pool and foundation, I am sure a flipper wanted it but I guess I asked more than the flipper so they went with my offer.

I am the average homebuyer that doesn't fix houses, so I am sure I have gotten into something that will probably bite me in the butt (why else would they agree to take $20K less?) and I will wind up paying more in the future for updates and other things that will pop up. But I am looking forward to the adventure (famous last words).