Houston’s housing market continues to diverge from other major Texas cities, with inventory levels rising while listings elsewhere in the state decline.
According to Itziar Aguirre, senior director of market analytics at Homes.com, Houston had over 42,000 active home listings in October. This figure is approximately 1,400 higher than in September and represents an increase of about 7,000 homes compared to October last year. “We’re still seeing a lot of master-planned communities pop up, even today at this interest rate, so that’s keeping inventory high. Especially west and north of Houston,” Aguirre said.
Homes.com data also shows Dallas/Fort Worth has the second-largest housing inventory nationally. However, unlike Houston, both Dallas and Austin have seen their housing markets contract since July. Austin’s for-sale inventory dropped from 16,500 homes in July to 14,700 in October. San Antonio experienced a slight uptick in September before declining again in October.
CoStar reports that Houston is the only metro area within the Texas Triangle where housing inventory has increased over recent months. The continued development of master-planned communities appears to be offsetting declines seen elsewhere as many homeowners across the country remove their properties from the market amid less favorable conditions.
In January, data indicated that Houston led the nation for best-selling master-planned communities during 2024. Developers such as Starwood Land, Brookfield, Hines, Friendswood Development Company and D.R. Horton have kept project pipelines full throughout the year. More than one-fifth of all master-planned community sales nationwide occur in Houston.
The growth is not limited to single-family homes; townhome and condo inventories grew by 27 percent and 28 percent respectively year-over-year in October. Within greater Houston, Katy and Lake Conroe saw the highest increases in active listings over the past year.
