Apex Properties Blog and News:

Every calendar year we see a similar pattern in the Houston housing market as the year progresses.

For many years, January has felt like a light switch being turned on after the holiday season ends.

The market tends to get progressively busier from January through June as the close of the school year approaches.

Thousands of sales across the city occur in this March - June window as many homeowners become empty nesters and plan to downsize or relocate. This along with all of the other elective sellers looking to downsize or upsize depending on their family situation. Still others wait until they actually retire, (which is also happening by the thousands annually) and a huge portion of those list their properties in this same window.

What this results in is the inventory level growing throughout the first half of the year, and then drawing down as we head back to school and then dropping yet again as we head into the holidays where we see almost all of the elective sellers choose to wait until the following January and beyond to list their homes.

As our inventory level has grown over the last 4 years, I am starting to see a very mixed result in our listings. Some are selling quickly, and others are seeing days on market extend, which is understandable because it's happening to the market at large.

I have always been a proponent of preparing homes for sale as best we can to maximize the seller's net proceeds, and that principle is becoming even more important as the competition is growing. Four years ago you might only have 2 or 3 competitors in a neighborhood when you listed, whereas now you have 7-10 other homes for sale in a similar size and price range.

Being the house that stands out as the most "move in ready" has never been more important than it is right now...and that importance will only grow if the total inventory continues to expand.

Then you throw in the idea of new construction still happening nearby lots of subdivisions and builders offering as low as 4% interest rates for 30 years and it becomes even more of a challenge to sell some of these homes.

Great preparation + outstanding photos and video + a price that makes sense to the buyers is generally what drives a home to a successful sale above its competitors.

Our nation is 250 years old.

I am so grateful to live and work here in the United States.

To drill down even further, I am also super grateful for Texas.

I'm so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in the USA and in our great State of Texas.

I hope you have a safe and happy Independence Day celebration with your family!

HAR has published the initial numbers for the Houston Market in May. We are creeping up to a near all time high for listings with nearly 39,000 properties available.

However, interestingly, NEW listing volume for the individual month is down just over 6%.

I think this is one of those ebbs and flows you see where months can be slightly different when comparing 2 different years, so looking at the years as a whole is informative. This is also why lots of organizations track rolling 3 month averages to smooth out the spikes in any kind of data.

Sellers were still pricing their listings slightly higher with a 2.3% increase over last May, HOWEVER we will see how that plays out in final sales prices when they release the full numbers which I'll have for you next week. You'll remember last month the sale prices were down fractionally at 1.4% lower than last year.

So we are now officially in what is considered a balanced "normal" market at this time. The sentiment that the market is "bad" is not really true, it just feels less robust than the market did a few years ago...but such is the cycle of Real Estate.

As the total amount of inventory grows, the importance of prepping your house to stand out above the competition has never been higher.

Even some of our best prepared homes are not getting as much showing traffic as they have in years past, so it's important that the condition of the property makes every showing count.

I spent this past Monday to Thursday at the Mike Ferry Superstar Retreat.

1100 of the most productive Real Estate agents in the country gathered in San Diego this week to learn from Mike, meet people from other markets, share best practices with each other at the breaks and at lunch, and work on building the best customer service experience we can for our clients.

I brought several amazing ideas back that I plan to implement immediately to improve my service.

I always enjoy coming to Mike's events because he never changes the underlying message. It truly is about fundamental best business practices that we can all improve to be more productive agents, with a never ending focus on improving the transaction experience for our clients.

The interesting thing about personal development is that no matter how many times I hear a similar message, there is ALWAYS something new to pick up and learn.

If you're looking for a Real Estate Agent that focuses on being the most productive, professional agent they can be....we need to talk when you're ready to make a move :)

HAR has published the full market stats for April.

You can read the full report HERE and my comments are just below!

9,568 total transactions in April, which is up 3.1% from a year ago. This makes sense because more homes are being built and our population is growing so we should see this number stay positive for a while.

Total inventory is up to 57,436 homes for sale, which is representing a 4.9 month supply.

Average sales price went down 1.4% this last year to $428,709, which is not a surprise as we watch the overall inventory grow. Supply has begun to outpace demand ever so slightly.

We do have more pendings this year than last so it will be interesting to see what next month's data brings.

The fundamentals never change. No matter the market conditions, cosmetically preparing your home for sale is AT LEAST a 3X return on investment.

If you, or anyone you know needs a Real Estate professional, reach out to me anytime.

HAR has published the FRESH report for April.

Look at how many listings came on the market! Almost 18,000 properties. As I've said, this is the time of year all of the elective movers come out of the woodwork to get sold.

Total listing count is up to nearly 38,000 and the average list price is down fractionally at 1.4%.

If you took an economics class in high school or college then you understand Supply and Demand and how that affects prices. Supply and demand can both increase or decrease independently but if supply outpaces demand you will start to see prices decline and we're seeing that a little bit here.

Now, keep in mind this is an average of a city of 6-8 million residents, hundreds of different subdivisions, and dozens of school districts. There are a plethora of factors that affect the value of any individual house, and certain pockets of Houston are still very robust.

Where I am seeing slower movement and reduced showing traffic are homes listed anywhere near new construction.

The new construction industry's future depends on the continual sale of new construction homes, regardless of the market conditions, regardless of total inventory levels, regardless of buyer demand not keeping up with supply. If you stop putting new homes under contract for very long, your company goes out of business.

So what areThey're offering 10-20-30K in top line credits to the buyers to spend on internal upgrades or closing costs.

This is a win for them because the 20K in top line "upgrades" might only actually cost the builder 5-10K in materials.

The bottom line is this, it's easy to tell what the market believes about any house if you collect good data and know how to analyze it. That's what we've been doing at Apex Properties for the last 5 years and nearly 800 transactions.

We show up.

We pay attention.

We tell the truth.

If you, or anyone you know needs a Real Estate professional, reach out to me anytime.

The full March sales report has been published by HAR.

Sales are up marginally from last year with 9,001 sales in March of 2026 vs 8,687 last March.

Total active listing inventory has grown to over 55,000 available properties, now representing a 4.7 month supply.

Average price contracted ever so slightly to from just over $425,000 to $420,510. This is basic economics, as a supply grows, if demand doesn't keep up, that gets reflected in the price of goods.

That said, we're setting up for a huge April with 9,474 current pendings. That's 1,074 additional pendings compared to March 2025!

This makes sense because this is our prime selling season. Buyers are out looking, and last month a ton of them went under contract.

If you have a property to sell this year or next year, reach out to me anytime and let's talk about your goals!

The best time of year to sell is upon us!

The initial snapshot of the market data for March has been released by HAR! Nearly 17,000 properties were listed across the city last month.

We have 36,207 total properties available for sale across Houston as we head into what will no doubt be the highest transaction count quarter of the year.

Inventory has grown and the average 30 year fixed mortgage rate has slowly risen above 6 again creating a small headwind for sellers as we head into April and May.

Average list price is down 2.4% from March 2025 and this is the eventual outcome of the growing supply levels of inventory, and the rates remaining above 6% for a while now.

Time will tell if the normal buyer demand we see at this time of year absorbs a large percentage of these listings, but the same timeless principles we've been following from day 1 apply more than ever right now.

In order to maximize a sales price:

Sellers should make sure their property looks as "move in ready" as possible. The fewer projects a buyer has to tackle, the less resistance they'll feel to writing an offer.

Realtors should take the absolute highest quality photos and video showcasing the property in it's best light. Showing traffic can be diminished if a listing is poorly presented.

Sellers should choose a list price that causes buyers to pay attention to their listing and ACT.

Buyers are in a comparison shopping game at all times.

What most sellers don't realize is they're not just "for sale." They are also competing for the same group of buyers, against every other semi-similar house in the surrounding area.

We want to make sure that everything we do with a listing is helping our seller stand out above the competition so that they are the obvious choice.

Some very interesting data from Homes.com this week:

In the first 10 months of 2025, our city led the nation in total new homebuilding permits with over 40,000 new permits filed!

Read the Full Article Here

This is really interesting to me because this is happening in spite of our resale inventory growing to a 4 year high, hovering close to a 6 month total supply of homes.

Obviously, builders are feeling confident there will be enough people moving here to buy these homes in the next 12-18 months.

Every year in January, I can absolutely see signs of the market waking back up from its holiday slumber, and this year is no different.

If you are thinking about buying or selling a home this year (or anytime in the future) and you would like expert guidance, please reach out to me anytime and let's have a conversation!

This is what 1400 people learning looks like!

We had an amazing week. We spent Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday at the Mike Ferry Organization's 2026 Production Retreat in Orange County CA.

Apex Properties had 3 of our agents there learning from the Original Real Estate coach, Mr Mike Ferry, one of the leaders of this industry that's obsessed with helping agents provide the best possible customer service for our clients.

Mike is 80 years old and has spent the last 50 years focused solely on helping Real Estate Agents get better. I have huge respect for the fact that he has a lifelong mission and he's going to do it until he's simply physically unable to.

Coaching helps me sell homes faster, negotiate better, communicate at higher levels and improve the systems my staff and I use to deliver the absolute best customer experience!

I think ANY business owner should invest in their business, never stop learning, and ALWAYS be looking for the next thing they can add to their business to make it better for their clients.

That's why I pay to attend these events and that's why I have a one on one coach through this company. It helps keep me accountable to my great clients and the goals I have set.