Real Estate Blog & Resources

Nothing is slowing down the Texas housing market anytime soon, as home prices and the sale of single-family houses continue to rise with no end in sight. This housing juggernaut continues to create the perfect environment for residential builders and other general contractors, although some slight pressures in the labor market and a lack of lots for sale are weighing on the industry.

According to the 2015-Q3 Texas Quarterly Housing Report, and the Texas Association of Realtors, the state saw home sales rise 7.8 percent year over year, while the median home price rose 7.7 percent year over year.

In what has been a long string of positive trends for the residential housing market, a rare speck of negative news has emerged as housing starts dropped last month. While many economists do not anticipate this minor blip to set back an otherwise surging industry, the slowdown might still underlie certain aspects of the residential construction sector that need firming. Still, the recent reports on the housing market continue signaling a strengthening sector of the economy and indicate additional prosperity in real estate development moving forward.

A continued trend in the housing market is the prevalence of homebuilders utilizing green home construction, and many industry watchers do not expect this trend to end anytime soon. According to a McGraw Hill Construction study, Green Multifamily and Single Family Homes: Growth in a Recovering Market, 62 percent of single-family builders and 54 percent of multifamily developers constructed 15 percent of their buildings by green standards in 2014. In addition, 19 percent of single-family builders constructed a whopping 90 percent of homes to green standards. For a building to qualify as green, the construction and final structure must meet a series of rigid requirements outlined by green building standards.