HOUSTON – Winter has always been a dreary time of year for real estate in Houston and across the country. But there’s a shift in the air. Buyers and sellers are coming out of hibernation earlier and earlier.
“It’s a significant and dramatic increase from previous years,” said Thai Klam, a technology advisor for Houston Association of Realtors.
Real estate experts said don’t wait around for the springtime: January is the new April.
Historically, April launched the kickoff of the home shopping season.
But for the last five years, the new trend, the spike starts in January, specifically when it comes to window shopping on sites such as HAR.com.
Since 2015, HAR has seen a steady increase in website and mobile App traffic in January.
Kristin Logan is on the front lines of real estate. She's been in the business for 19 years.
“Most of the time, I see my sellers contact me in February, early March because they want to aim for that spring break time to get their home on the market,” said Logan. “But that hasn’t been the case recently. As soon as the holidays were over, my phone and email were exploding.”
Last week, a family was out touring a home with Logan in Manvel. They’re trying for the second year in a row to beat the springtime rush.
“I think it’s a great time to buy,” said Yany Perez. “We started looking last summer, and it got very stressful, a lot of competing buyers. It just became too stressful. We just decided to start over again this year.”
Low supply is driving the housing surge.
“I think the market is really healthy at the moment, we’ve got the interest rate still at historic all-time low, inventory, supply is down,” said Klam.
Top Five Neighborhoods
Source: HAR.com
- The Woodlands
- Katy - Southwest
- Cypress North
- Pearland
- Katy - Southeast
Making Your Real Estate Listing More Attractive
- Have a professional photographer take photos of your home.
- Include at least 20 photos on your home’s online listing.
- De-clutter your house. No need to show photos of your closet unless your closets are extraordinary.
- De-personalize your home. Make it look like a “model home." For inspiration tour model homes.
- Most importantly your house should be listed at a competitive price.