2018 Annual Market Comparison
As 2018 began, Houston’s overall economic landscape showed a gradual return to normalcy, with many Harvey-battered properties coming back online or being demolished and rebuilt altogether, and the resumption of hiring in a variety of industry sectors. Throughout the year, those employment trends contributed to an influx of home buyers and renters to the Houston area from across the country and around the world.
When HAR issued its August and September home sales reports, the association cautioned that much of the data was distorted because it compared to the period in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey struck and effectively halted real estate activity for the last week or so of August. Once transactions resumed during the early to middle part of September, the volume was unusually high. This created an exaggerated sales increase for August 2018 and, conversely, an exaggerated decline for September 2018.