Supply in Houston’s residential real estate market surpassed demand in 2025, leading to a notable increase in home sales but little change in prices. According to the Houston Association of Realtors, single-family home sales rose by 3.8 percent last year, with 88,634 homes sold compared to 85,373 in 2024.
In contrast, other major Texas cities saw less growth or declines. Dallas/Fort Worth experienced a modest increase of just 1 percent, reaching 86,373 sales according to MetroTex. The Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos area saw a decline of 3.2 percent to about 29,300 sales, as reported by the Austin Board of Realtors.
Despite the heightened activity in Houston’s housing market, median sale prices did not rise. The Houston Association of Realtors reported that the median price for a single-family home remained steady at $335,000 throughout 2025. At certain times during the year—including late spring and early fall—median prices were even lower than those recorded in 2024.
The city’s housing inventory reached record levels last year. In June, active single-family listings surpassed 39,000—a year-over-year increase of 30 percent and the highest figure since 2007. By August, total inventory including townhomes and condos had climbed to nearly 44,000 listings. According to CoStar data (https://www.costar.com/), this gave Houston the largest home supply among U.S. metro areas.
Home construction continued at a strong pace as well. The Houston-Pasadena-The Woodlands metro area led all U.S. markets for new home permits issued between January and March with almost 13,000 permits according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center (https://www.recenter.tamu.edu/). This contrasted with North Texas where building slowed down.
Sellers often accepted discounts on their properties last fall. In September, homes sold for an average of 96.3 percent of their list price according to Redfin and TRD Data (https://www.redfin.com/news/housing-market-update-september-2025/). Nearly one-third of sellers offered discounts in August—a rate tied with Dallas for the highest among major metropolitan areas per Redfin data.
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