Texas was home to the top-two markets with the highest share of new home sales [1]from October 2018 to September 2019—Dallas and Houston.
Dallas had more than 32,000 new homes over that one-year span, followed by Houston at nearly 30,000. This increase occurred during the same period where Texas grew by 367,000 people.
Florida was second in growth, adding 233,000 residents. CoreLogic added that six of the ten metros with the largest number of new sales were in Texas and Florida—two states with the largest population gains.
Port St. Lucie, Florida, led the nation in new-home growth at nearly 30%, followed by Warren Robbins, Georgia; Ocala, Florida; and The Villages, Florida.
CoreLogic states that of the metros with more than a 15% increase in sales, more than half were located in Texas and Florida.
“These places had lower housing costs than in high-cost markets and had a collective unemployment rate that was two-tenths of a percentage point lower than the U.S. rate,” the report states.
The report states that 64% of buyers used conventional conforming loans and 17% used loans through the FHA. Homes prices between $750,000 and $1 million, more than 60% used conventional loans and that number falls to under 20% for homes more than $1 million.
The National Association of Realtors announced earlier in January that the Pending Home Sales Index [2](PHSI) rose 1.2% in November 2019, reaching 108.5 (An index of 100 is equal to the level of contract activity in 2001). Year-over-year contract signings increased by 7.4% during November.
Across the nation, various regions experienced different rates of growth. Specifically, the Western part of the United States experienced the most impressive rate of growth, followed by the remaining trio of major regions, which only experienced slight differences in month-over-month contract activity. However, each of these regions’ pending home sales did experience an uptick.
“Despite the insufficient level of inventory, pending home contracts still increased in November,” said Lawrence Yun, NAR Chief Economist. “The favorable conditions are expected throughout 2020 as well, but supply is not yet meeting the healthy demand.