New home sales slowed down in all four major metros in Texas in September, according to a new report, despite increased affordability in the Lone Star state’s market.
The latest edition of the New Home Sales Report, issued by Dallas-based HomesUSA.com, found that the three-month average number of new home sales dropped across Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio dropped in September.
In Austin, new home sales slipped from 871 in August to 864 in September; in Dallas-Fort Worth, they went from 1,862 to 1,848 within the same period; in San Antonio, they slid down from 1,100 to 1,067; and in Houston, they went from 1,970 to 1,943.
The drop in new home sales is yet another sign of the slowdown that the once-booming Texas housing market is currently experiencing. During the pandemic, when mortgage rates were comparatively low, Texas faced a huge influx of people willing to move to the state for its affordable housing and relatively low cost of living—which includes the ever appealing lack of individual income tax.
Newsweek contacted Texas REALTORS, an organization that advocates for the industry, via email for comment on Tuesday morning.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images
But the rush of people flooding into Texas brought up the cost of housing as demand for homes and competition grew across the state, and the cost of living has also gone up since the pandemic.
The number of new arrivals to the state has slowed down since the heights of the health emergency, and Texas’ efforts to build more homes have contributed to bringing more inventory to the market, bringing down prices.
The result is a situation where new home listings are increasing in the state, properties are cheaper, but sales are slowing down as demand has cooled down compared to the frenzy of the pandemic.
According to the New Home Sales Report, the three-month average active listings inventory in Texas’ four major new home markets grew from 31,983 in August to 32,337 last month.
In Dallas-Fort Worth, active listings grew from 7,686 in August to 7,939 in September; in Houston, they grew from 12,812 to 12,994; in Austin, they went up from 5,973 to 6,019. San Antonio was the only city where the number of active listings went down from 5,512 to 5,384.
The average new home price dropped in all but one of the four major metropolitan areas between August and September: in Austin, the three-month moving average price was $483,408 in September, down from $494,920 in August. In Houston, the price dropped from $402,741 in August to $397,318 last month. In San Antonio, the average new home price was $338,620 in September, down from $340,775 the month before.
Only in Dallas-Fort Worth, the three-month average price climbed from $489,762 in August to $492,129 in September.