The First Time Buyer Tax Credit has rightly been credited with stimulating recent home sales; however, looking at the result by price range shows that in Houston there is more at work than just the tax credit. In an earlier post I pointed out that the number of transactions in 2009 compared to 2008 were down 20.3% in the first quarter, down 19.1% in the second quarter and will be up slightly in the third quarter. I have analyzed those numbers by price range. The analysis shows that the third quarter experienced significant improvement in all price ranges except over $2,000,000. The over $2,000,000 segment continues to languish with all three quarters reporting declines of more than 50%. The segment of $1,000,000 to $2,000,000 had as many sales in third quarter 2009 as in third quarter 2008. The surprising number, one that I have yet to understand the reason, the segment of $750,000 to $1,000,000 showed more than 15% increase in the third quarter after having sizable decreases in the earlier quarters. I know these numbers may make your head swim. The big picture is we have one additional sign that the market is slowly improving and in all segments under $2,000,000. Shown below are the quarterly comparisons by price range.
Houston Single Family Home Sales
Change in Transactions 2008 to 2009
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First |
Second |
Third |
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Quarter |
Quarter |
Quarter |
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Less than $100,000 |
1.7% |
-14.0% |
1.4% |
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$100,000 to $200,000 |
-26.0% |
-22.7% |
-0.8% |
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$200,000 to $300,000 |
-24.4% |
-13.8% |
4.0% |
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$300,000 to $500,000 |
-28.5% |
-18.7% |
-2.4% |
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$500,000 to $750,000 |
-36.5% |
-23.5% |
-6.8% |
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$750,000 to $1,000,000 |
-30.0% |
-25.9% |
15.7% |
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$1,000,000 to $2,000,000 |
-40.6% |
-20.6% |
0.0% |
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Over $2,000,000 |
-51.9% |
-50.9% |
-51.0% |
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