The Woodlands Edition | July 2023

REAL ESTATE Home sales in The Woodlands on pace with regional trends

HOME SALES SLOWING In 2023, the Houston area saw a drop in home sales and prices. The Woodlands followed this trend but saw higher prices than the region in May 2022 and May 2023.

BY VANESSA HOLT

sale price in the 77382 ZIP code was $526,700, nearly $200,000 higher than the regional median. Ferester also said cash buyers are a consideration in The Woodlands. “In The Woodlands, we have more higher-end buy- ers, and a lot of them, I would say, at least 25%-30% of them pay cash,” Ferester said. Adam Perdue, a research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, said interest rates led to the boom in 2021 and have contributed to sale and prices leveling o in 2023. “The interest rate cut from 3.75%, which is what you would get at the end of 2019, to as low as 2.7% at the end of 2020. [That] gave everyone a 17% increase in purchasing power,” Perdue said. “People ... had a massive increase in purchasing power, so they bought bigger homes.” Perdue said that increase was not sustainable, although in communities such as The Woodlands, where home prices are generally higher, the market is dierent from Houston overall. Ferester said in some parts of The Woodlands, higher prices are no deterrent to sales. “There is a ceiling you can get to, but there are pockets in The Woodlands, like East Shore and parts of Creekside [Park], Liberty Branch, where there’s no ceiling,” Ferester said.

Houston metro single-family homes sold year-to-date as of May, 2016-23

The real estate market cooled in 2023 after historic highs in home sales across the Houston region in 2022, but Realtors in The Woodlands area said it is still a seller’s market locally, with cash buyers edging out those limited by higher interest rates on loans. “The Woodlands is always more insulated than the rest of our area; however, we are seeing [lower sale prices] happen, especially under $1 million, because their price is aected more by the [interest] rates,” said Haley Garcia, broker associate for the Haley Garcia Group in The Woodlands. According to information from the Houston Asso- ciation of Realtors compiled by the Greater Houston Partnership in May, the number of single-family homes sold in the Houston region in the rst ve months of the year in 2022 was 42,199, the highest number in the years tracked since 2014. In 2023, that was down to 34,149, which was above prepandemic levels but below the 2021-22 numbers. While the median home price for May was down from $350,900 to $340,095, it was still well above the prepandemic median of $250,000 in 2019, according to HAR. In The Woodlands, median prices year over year in May were down in six out of seven ZIP codes, according to information provided by Beth Ferester of Corcoran Ferester Realty. However, the median

50,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 10,000 0

Houston metro median home sale price in May, 2016-23

$400k $480k $560k $320k $240k $160k $80k $0

The Woodlands area: 5.4% decrease

SOURCES: BETH FERESTER, CORCORAN FERESTER REALTY, HOUSTON ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS, GREATER HOUSTON PARTNERSHIPCOMMUNITY IMPACT

About Us: We are property insurance claim specialists who represent your interests and secure the best settlement as quickly as possible.

The Story: On Valentine’s Day 2021, disaster struck when a cold front brought snow, sleet, and freezing rain to southeast Texas, enveloping the Woodlands, a high-end gated subdivision, in a deep freeze. The unusual winter weather froze pipes, causing extensive water damage in many structures, including the 3,600-square-foot home of James and Jill Baine. The insurance company brought in its preferred contractor and mitigation experts to remove the wet drywall and wood flooring throughout the house and began tallying up the damage to the elevator and approximately $30,000 in contents. The Baines received an initial estimate of $450,000—far below the claim value—after 14 months of attempting to handle the claim on their own. The insurance compa- ny’s original scope of repair assumed the home walls consisted of standard drywall materials, but it soon became apparent that this was not the case. Instead, the walls, fashioned in unique American clay held more moisture than drywall, making the home difficult to dry and slowing the mitigation process. In addition, labor and materials shortages due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic made it more challenging to keep the proj- ect’s momentum. After being referred to Jansen/Adjusters International, our expert team of public adjusters took over the process, removing the burden from the insured so they could focus on restoring their daily life while our professionals handled the claim. Our expert public adjuster and the team discovered that the American clay ran behind cabinets, vanities, mirrors, and more. This home would require gutting, a process not part of the insurance company’s original scope of work. Even the insurance company’s contractor agreed that this assessment was correct. Following lengthy negotiations, the insured received the additional compensation he was entitled to without hiring a lawyer and entering a long, strenuous legal process. Jansen/Adjusters International negotiated to settle the claim for $910,000, allowing James and Jill Baine to enjoy their home fully. In just a few months, the team nearly doubled the settlement Mr. Baine was initially offered, getting him the amount he was entitled to under his policy without resorting to appraisal.

5/15/23, 11:22 AM

jansen-community-impact-ad.png

SCAN FOR MORE INFO

www.jansenai.com

COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM