The Houston Chronicle just published a great real estate article talking about demand for homes in excess of $1M.
Highlights include:
- Number of people paying seven figures for a home is up 23% in the Houston area from 2007;
- There were almost 800 buyers who paid at least $1 million for houses in 2007 through transactions handled by agents in places like Stablewood, Memorial and River Oaks. That was up 23 percent from the year before and 64 percent over the sales for 2005, according to the Houston Association of Realtors;
- Million-dollar sales only represented about 1 percent of the homes sold through the Multiple Listing Service last year;
- Almost 10 percent of the sales in River Oaks were new homes. And in Tanglewood, 21 percent of last year's sales were of new homes.
- More homes in Bellaire, Afton Oaks and even suburban areas such as The Woodlands and Kingwood are selling for seven figures.
- The average time it took to sell a $1 million or pricier home in February was 111 days, according to the latest data from the realty association. That's down from 164 days last year.
- Square-foot prices in the Inner Loop neighborhood south of Westheimer were up just 3.3 percent last year, but that's likely to rise as more new homes are built and sold.
The number of Houston-area home sales handled by Realtors that were worth $1 million or more.
• 2007: 797
• 2006: 648
• 2005: 487
• 2004: 380
• 2003: 297
Source: Houston Association of Realtors
