Houston housing feels COVID-19’s effects in April

​​​HOUSTON – The local housing market’s strong start to the new year was abruptly interrupted in April as the full impact of the coronavirus outbreak was felt across Texas and the rest of the country​​.​

According to the Houston Association of Realtors, home sales had been outpacing 2019’s record volume prior to April as consumers took advantage of historically low interest rates. However, year-to-date sales are still running 1.4 percent ahead of last year’s level.

Last month, 6,199 single-family homes were sold across the metro, down from 7,666 sales a year earlier, a 19.1 percent decline. This ended a nine-month run of positive sales growth. 

Pricing, however, showed little impact. The single-family average sales price was $310,331, less than $100 lower than the average prices in April 2019. The median sales price increased 2.4 percent over the year to $251,000. 

Single-family inventory tightened by 0.3 months to 3.6 months. The Real Estate Center considers six to 6.5 months of inventory a balanced market. 

Last month, there were 7,125 single-family pending sales, down 17.6 percent from April 2019. 

Sales of all property types totaled 7,192, down 21.6 percent over the year. Total dollar volume for the month fell 20.4 percent to slightly more than $2.1 billion.

The Real Estate Center has more information on housing:​