The real estate industry in Montgomery County was off to a roaring start this year, said Vicki Fullerton, the former chair of both the Texas and Houston associations of Realtors. The Greater Houston area saw historically low interest rates and an increase in demand, she said.

“We were anticipating a really good year,” Fullerton said.

And then the pandemic hit. In Texas, home sales in March surpassed March 2019 by 4.3%. But by April, home sales plummeted to 26,103—the fewest monthly sales since 2012 and an 18.7% decrease compared to April 2019, according to The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. May sales increased to 27,636 but were still 23.3% below May 2019.

Local home sales also dipped. In the ZIP codes that make up the Conroe and Montgomery area, home sales totaled 291 in April, compared to 312 in April 2019, according to Houston Association of Realtors data. By May, home sales fell to 222, a decline from 379 sales in May 2019.

However, some newer communities have reported above-average sales, with The Woodlands Hills hitting a record-breaking month in May and a 25% increase in home sales so far this year, said Heath Melton, executive vice president of MPC Residential for the Howard Hughes Corp. The master-planned community opened just north of Conroe in fall 2018.

In Grand Central Park in Conroe, which opened in 2017, 80 homes have been sold this year—a 100% increase compared to the same time period in 2019, said Shannon League, marketing director for Johnson Development Corp., the community’s developer. May sales were 55% more than 2019 May sales, she said.