Low inventory pushes home prices higher, creates affordability challenge From the cover
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Median home prices in the Missouri City area rose as much as 43.25% between August 2019 and August 2024, while Sugar Land West rose as high as 51.4%, according to Texas Real Estate Research Center data. Meanwhile, Sugar Land South fell below both Houston and Texas at 31.97%. In the third quarter of 2024, the Houston housing market experienced a positive shift in housing affordability for the first time since 2020, rising year over year from 35% of households being able to afford a median-priced home to 38%, according to a news release from the Houston Association of Realtors. Compared to the Houston region, a larger percent- age of households in the Missouri City and Sugar Land area can afford to purchase a median-priced, single-family home, per HAR data.
Research Center at Texas A&M University. This is below the six months of inventory real estate experts consider a balanced market. The lack of available land in the Sugar Land area, which city officials said is around 4%, makes it difficult to bring new housing stock to the area, Dean said. Steven Fernandes, president and broker of Substantia Realty, said he believes the low inventory and land availability in Sugar Land and Missouri City is pushing first-time homebuyers into other areas of Fort Bend County, such as Rosenberg and Richmond.
A June 2023 report from the Chamber of Commerce, a product research company, showed the Houston metro had the most new residential home permits issued in 2023 among the largest metros in the U.S. Despite these 23,062 new home permits issued, the Houston area’s housing inventory is still lower than it was pre-pandemic. The housing inventory, the time it would take to sell all homes on the market, in three Sugar Land and Missouri City submarkets averaged 3.87 months in August—lower than the pre-pandemic average of 4.92 in August 2019, according to data from the Texas Real Estate
Local Sugar Land and Missouri City markets
99
Missouri City
Sugar Land
August 2019 August 2024 Median home sales price
Sugar Land West Sugar Land South Missouri City
90A
Sugar Land West
69
$303,000
+51.4%
6
$458,750
N
Sugar Land South
$358,500
+31.97%
Months of housing inventory
$473,125
Sugar Land West
Sugar Land South Missouri City
Missouri City
8
6.6 3.2 5
$215,000
+43.25%
6 4 2 0
$307,995
3.47 3.53 4.6
Texas
$245,000
+38.37%
$339,000
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
Houston metro
$249,000
+34.84%
$335,750
SOURCE: TEXAS REAL ESTATE RESEARCH CENTER/COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCE: TEXAS A&M REAL ESTATE RESEARCH CENTER/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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