Texas Buyers Spend 2 Months Looking for a Home
Finding the right home at the right price is the biggest challenge for Texas homebuyers. More than half of homebuyers said finding a house to buy was their biggest hurdle during the past year, according to a new study by the Texas Realtors association. Texas buyers spent a median of two months shopping and looked at an average of nine properties before making a move. The inventory of homes on the market in Texas has plunged this year because of the pandemic. At the same time, low mortgage rates have fueled a surge in new buyers.
About three out of 10 recent homebuyers statewide were first-time owners, according to the Texas Realtors group. And almost 40% of buyers had previously rented an apartment or house. The median age of Texas homebuyers is 52, older than the median of 47 across the U.S. Texas buyers had a median household income of $95,500 vs. $93,200 nationwide.
Almost a quarter of Texas home sales in the last year were to ethnic minorities. “While Texas was slightly better than the national average of homebuyer diversity, we still have work to do,” Texas Realtors chairman Cindi Bulla said in the report. “Across the state, we are still seeing white buyers make up the largest share of homebuyers, while those identifying as Hispanic or Black make up 14% and 5%, respectively. We as Texas Realtors must be laser-focused on strategies to ensure that homeownership is attainable and affordable for our entire population.”
Sellers who put their house up for purchase in the last year had owned the property for a median of 12 years — higher than the national tenure, the Texas Realtors found...
