Texas housing sales remain strong despite pandemic

​AUSTIN – The mandatory shelter-in-place orders related to COVID-19 caused Texas home sales to decline in 2Q2020, while median price increased, according to Texas Realtors’ Texas Quarterly Housing Report.

​Home sales declined 9.9 percent to 91,970 homes sold. Statewide, the median price increased 2.9 percent to $252,000. 

Of all the homes sold last quarter, 34.6 percent were priced from $200,000 to $299,999, the highest share of sales among all price-class distributions.

"With COVID-19 and the mandatory shut down, the Texas housing market performed as expected in Q2," said Real Estate Center Chief Economist Dr. Jim Gaines. "We have a tighter market compared with last year, causing prices to remain high. However, in June we saw demand pick up with buyers becoming more active and taking advantage of the low interest rates."

Active listings declined 22 percent to 88,337 listings. Texas homes spent an average of 57 days on the market during the same time frame, five days more than second quarter 2019.

Housing inventory in Texas declined 0.9 months to three months of inventory. The Real Estate Center considers six to 6.5 months of inventory a balanced market.

"The housing market is one of the few segments of the economy that has held strong," Dr. Gaines concluded. "Barring another shutdown, we anticipate it to perform reasonably well in Q3."

The Real Estate Center has a wealth of economic information online for free.