Keeping you informed about economic developments!
Houston Area Home Prices
We are often asked how the recession and downturn in the national housing market has affected the prices of homes in the Houston area. Home prices for the nation as a whole started dropping in 2006 and continued through 2011. The median home price has now slumped by more than 30 percent and may decline even more in some US cities. It was poor mortgage lending practices that precipitated the downturn in prices.
The Houston housing market has, of course, fared much better than the national housing market. Prices in Houston started declining in July of 2007 and have now fallen approximately 7 percent (based on incomplete data for 2011). You should keep in mind that this figure is for the overall market, not for individual areas.
We are also often asked when home prices will start to recover. Several professional real estate forecasters are predicting that home prices will reach a bottom during the first half of 2012 and start a slow recovery thereafter. Unfortunately, there are still millions of foreclosed properties on the market across the nation; there are millions of properties in which the homeowners are behind on their mortgage payments; and there are millions of homes that are now worth less than the mortgage balances (“underwater”).
The chart below shows a twenty-year history of prices per square foot for single-family homes sold through the Houston Association of Realtors MLS. If you have any questions about Houston area home prices, please email Evert Crawford.
Fall 2011 Symposium Articles & CD-Houston
Our fall symposium was held on Tuesday, November 8, 2011. The symposium, entitled "Houston - The Teflon® Economy and Real Estate Markets: A Few Scratches, But the Bad Stuff is Not Sticking and We Keep on Cooking..." was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Houston, Texas, with Dr. Ted C. Jones, Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist for Stewart Title, as our speaker. Please take a moment to read the article published in the Houston Chronicle highlighting some of Dr. Jones's comments from the symposium. KUHF Houston Public Radio also interviewed Dr. Jones. You can read his comments and also listen to the interview here.
Our publication, CD-Houston will be available for sale soon. This CD includes Dr. Jones's entire slide show presentation from the symposium along with text for each slide. If you would like to order a CD, please visit our publications page or call our office at 713-743-3869.
Recent Presentations Given by Dr. Barton Smith, Economics Professor Emeritus, University of Houston
Dr. Smith gave a presentation to The Women's Institute of Houston in October 2011. His topic was "Economic Reformation is a Prerequisite for a True Economic Recovery".
Dr. Smith also gave a presentation to one of our symposium sponsors, LJA Engineering, Inc., in November 2011. His presentation was entitled, "The Economic Recovery Remains Painfully Slow".
To view these presentations, please click on the presentation title above. After downloading, please select "read-only".
Special Commentary and Slide Show
Dr. Barton Smith wrote a commentary in the spring 2011 for Parkway Realty Services (PRS), which covered the challenges of balancing the federal budget. He also made a presentation to one of our sponsors, LJA Engineering, on the near-term future of the Houston economy and the threat that the budget impasse presents to an otherwise relative positive future for Houston. Both sponsors have generously provided the commentary and the presentation slides so we could make them available to our general viewers. We thank them and hope we might be able to share similar materials in the future. We recommend that you click first on the PRS commentary and read its details. Then view the LJA slides to provide an expanded PowerPoint® program on the challenges of balancing the budget as well as the likely near-term future of Houston’s economy. Click on the logos below for the commentary (PRS) and the slide show (LJA) - choose 'read-only'.
Houston Chronicle Article
Mr. Evert Crawford, Director of the Institute for Regional Forecasting, was interviewed on April 4, 2011 for this informative article "High-end properties sell well - if the price is right" published in the Houston Chronicle.
Commentary by Barton A. Smith, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, University of Houston
Read Dr. Smith's commentary entitled "The U.S. Economy: Where Do We Go From Here?"
Contact Us
University of Houston
Institute for Regional Forecasting
204 McElhinney Hall
Houston, Texas 77204-5019
Phone: (713) 743-3869
Fax: (713) 743-3969
E-mail: Patsy Woods
The IRF is a Division of The University of Houston's Hobby Center for Public Policy.