Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Houston right now.
You have the upper hand in Houston. Most homes for sale still have no buyer. There are more homes for sale than at any time in ten years. Sellers are competing for you. Use it.
Only 24 out of every 100 homes for sale have found a buyer. The other 76 are still waiting. Your offer may be the only one on the table. Few sellers are dropping their price. Asking prices are holding firm. Your discount will come from one stale listing, not from the whole market.
A typical Houston home takes 52 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 11% slower than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago. There are 5,775 homes for sale in Houston. That is the most in ten years. It is 3 times the low of Apr 2022. Every one of them competes with the house you want.
Asking prices are 28.5% below their May 2022 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower. Houston prices rose in only 67 of the last 108 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
There is no rush. Prices are still coming down. Watch the homes you like. Come back after they cut. Let the seller move first.
Most Houston households rent. 50 out of every 100 households are renters. That share has held steady for five years. Houston added about 24,000 renter households in five years. Renter households average 2.3 people. Two and three bedrooms fit the typical renter.
Households grew 9% in five years. The housing stock grew 8%. The two are moving in step. 10.4% of homes sit empty. Tenants have options. Budget extra weeks of vacancy between leases.
The median Houston household earns $78,845 a year. Incomes here have grown 3.9% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 5.1 times the median income. That is the national middle. Neither cash flow nor appreciation is free here. A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,971 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast.
That is the market, not your address. Run an address through the app to see its rent estimate and cash flow.
Yes, if you negotiate. Buyers have the upper hand in Houston right now. 24 out of every 100 homes for sale have a buyer, 17% of sellers have cut their price, and a typical home takes 52 days to sell.
Asking prices are 28.5% below their May 2022 peak. You are not buying at the top. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower.
Assume -2.3% a year. Houston barely grew over the decade. Ignore that rate. Most of it landed in the 2020 and 2021 boom. Without the boom, Houston loses about 2.3% a year. That is the number to type in. Prices fell 6.5% over the last year. That is a timing signal, not a trend.
A typical Houston home takes 52 days to find a buyer. Half of them take even longer. That is 11% slower than a year ago. Those sellers are paying to own a house they want to sell. Search for homes listed 60+ days ago.
Most Houston households rent. 50 out of every 100 households are renters. That share has held steady for five years. 10.4% of homes sit empty. Tenants have options. Budget extra weeks of vacancy between leases.
A tenant on the median income can pay about $1,971 a month. That is the standard 30% affordability line. Rents above it thin your tenant pool fast. The median Houston household earns $78,845 a year.
77039. Only 17 out of 100 homes there have a buyer. 13% of sellers there have cut their price, and a typical home takes 113 days to sell.
Where it isn't: 77032 ranks #8,216 in the country for buyer demand. Expect the least room to negotiate there.
No ZIP is on both lists. In Houston you pick leverage or growth. You cannot have both.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 77048 | +7.3% | $168 | 0.45 | 104 |
| 77006 | +3.6% | $287 | 0.23 | 153 |
| 77034 | +1.7% | $156 | 0.45 | 44 |
| 77045 | +0.0% | $172 | 0.25 | 65 |
| 77013 | -0.4% | $156 | 0.24 | 19 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Houston has 168 ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, days to sell, buyer demand, and price cuts.
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