Despite the Greater Houston region losing more jobs than in the Great Recession and the 1980s oil downturn combined in March and April 2020, people continued to purchase homes at competitive prices with low mortgage rates.
While local home sales dipped in the spring, Cy-Fair’s market began to bounce back in June and ended up reaching about the same level of sales as the previous year, according to Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center.
“I think what we saw in Cypress was pretty indicative of what was happening in Houston in general. In the beginning of the year, it started off pretty strong, the pandemic hit [and] everything slowed up a little bit,” Patten Title Company President Eric Fontanot said. “But as we continued to progress through the latter part of the year and the stay-at-home orders were lifted, it was gangbusters.”
Fontanot, whose company works with local buyers, sellers, lenders, appraisers and brokers, said the busiest months for single-family home sales typically fall between May and August with a peak in June and July. But because of the pandemic and pent-up demand, selling activity spiked in June and continued at high rates even through September—when the market typically slows at the start of the school year.In Cypress particularly, Fontanot said the market’s strength comes from the healthy balance of higher-end homes and entry-level homes for young families, all located in an acclaimed school district. The area should expect continued appreciation of home values and opportunity for new homeowners to buy as the community expands over the next five years, he said.
He said most of the local homes were built after 2000, and about one-third of homes fall in the affordable $125,000-$250,000 range.
