Houston is unique in many ways, but not many realize the surprising variety of homes in the city (compared to other places), and the resulting assortment of homes available all over town.
Bankrate Housing Specialist Jeff Ostrowski says home sales have been slowing down over the past couple of years in the Houston area, but bargains remain and the choices are plenty.
A home in Montrose for $500,000 will get you something far different from what you’ll get in Kingwood, The Woodlands, Richmond or Baytown at that same price..
“I know in many cities $500,000 would be something like the median price for a home, but in Houston that’s headed toward the high end.”
The median home price is estimated by Realtor.com to be about $310,000 in the Houston area, considered a very low price when compared to comparable cities.
“When you look at it on a national scale, the median home price in Northern California like San Francisco or Silicon Valley is $2 million plus, and then you can go somewhere like Danville, Illinois, where the median price is something like $120,000,” Ostrowski points out.
But Houston is a mix of the classic (The Heights and Garden Oaks, for example) and the new (the now-hot area of Cypress and much of Katy, extending out into Waller County to the west) and then there’s the medium-new but unique (The Woodlands and Fort Bend County, for example).
It’s a buyers’ market, Ostrowski says, so if you’re interested in buying you never know what kind of bargains you can find until you look and ask, he says.