TAR: Houston condos selling fast

HOUSTON – Area homebuyers are snapping up condominiums and townhomes at a fast clip, depleting supply and forcing prices up, according to the 2013 Texas Condominium Sales Report by the Texas Association of Realtors.

Through September 2013, buyers closed on 5,067 condo and townhome properties in the greater Houston area. That’s up 25 percent from the same period a year ago.

The median price for a condo in Houston was up 7 percent to $140,000 compared with last year. Listings were down 31 percent, and the average time it took to sell a condo during the time period fell 27 percent to 61 days.

“We’re at least a year or two away from delivering the condos that are currently needed in Texas’s metro areas,” said Jim Gaines, economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M.

Based on data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, the report analyzes 2013 year-to-date condo sales in Austin, Dallas, Houston and San Antonio through September 2013.