Housing market going strong in Odessa

ODESSA – The Odessa Board of Realtors website shows that 975 homes were sold in 2011, 1,124 were sold in 2012 and 476 have been sold from January to May of this year.

Statistics provided by Karr Ingham show the average selling price of homes in the area as $219,000.

“It’s been awhile since the market has been like this,” Gayle Hirsch, the president of the Odessa Board of Realtors, said. “Four or five months ago we didn’t have even 100 homes listed, but today there are 179. The average is between 400 and 450.”

Hirsch said that since the housing market has really started to pick up the big home building companies in the area have started to boom as well.

Permian Homes has built in North Park, East Park, Renaissance Estates, Parks Legado and Old Course with prices ranging from $170,000 all the way to $500,000.

Permian Homes and Betenbough Homes are builders in the area, both breaking into a list of the top 200 in the nation. Betenbough has been building in the area since 2008 and has sold 131 homes to date.

Betenbough is currently looking to develop 206 more acres to extend the North Park community near Lawndale, which would add 1,000 homes to the area.

According to Virgil Trower of Trower Realtors, many people in the area who want to buy homes are having to wait because of their credit.

“We’ve got a lot of people that would like to buy but are having to rent,” Trower said. “We’re putting people in rentals for six months to a year so they can get their credit in line.”

The amount of time it takes to sell a house is “pretty brisk” and there are people with the money to buy regardless.

“The market’s good, unemployment in the area keeps coming down,” Trower said. “And it doesn’t hurt when oil is at $103 a barrel.”