Chaille Ralph, chairwoman of the Houston Association of REALTORS board, has worked as a licensed real estate broker since 1982.

The native Houstonian began her career by managing and marketing commercial office buildings, and then she grew to include commercial construction and project management before shifting to residential sales in the mid-1980s.

Ralph would later expand her skills to relocation services and sales management.

Ralph often helps train aspiring and well-seasoned real estate agents, and she combines state-of-the-art technology solutions along with support for her sales associates to bring a high level of service to costumers.

Through her career Ralph has served on numerous committees, task forces and held leadership positions with HAR.

Today Ralph serves as the 2014 chairwoman of the HAR board and holds director positions with both the Texas and National associations of Realtors.

How long is the Greater Houston area expected to remain a seller's market?

We expect that certainly throughout 2014 and into 2015 that we are going to see pretty much a seller's market. We think the market will stay strong well into 2015. Sales are strong right now; they continue to be strong on a monthly basis. If property is priced right it tends to move very quickly. Inventory is still low as of the end of January. Our January numbers showed 2.6 months of inventory throughout the Greater Houston area currently on the market.

When is the current and planned future home construction expected to catch up with the demand in the Greater Houston? Is there any fear of overbuilding?

I certainly do believe that we have learned our lesson in the overbuilding. I think we have probably started a little slow in the last couple of years building because the market was still coming back. I think you will start to see again, probably in 2015–16, a lot of that catch-up because right now they really can't keep up with a lot of the demand.

Who is typically moving to master-planned communities, and what makes these communities so popular?

I think what makes them popular is your ability to live, work and play. You are seeing more development happen in the outlying areas from the commercial standpoint as well as the residential. You go back and forth at different times in our lives of not wanting a commute or wanting to work in the central business district and not worrying so much about the commute, but when we see facilities, such as the Exxon facility, going in The Woodlands market, you know people want to live out there. They don't want to commute out to that area, even though in some ways it would be a reverse commute. We are seeing a lot in our close-in markets people have already in the last two years moved out to The Woodlands market because they want to beat the rush before the facility is finished and Exxon employs.

What factors are taken into consideration when determining housing costs?

Certainly inventory is going to drive prices up. When you have lower inventory, your prices for land go up as well. When you have a market such as we are in, you also end up with issues with supply, you have issues with contractors to do the work and the cost of materials goes up.

What kind of impact is the ExxonMobil relocation having on the housing market in north Harris and south Montgomery counties?

It's having a huge impact. The months of inventory around that market are 1.5 months of inventory. So if nothing else came in the market basically the inventory would be depleted in a month and a half, so it's definitely a big effect. It's in all price ranges that we have out there that the inventory is low, so the new construction is really important. I think people are fearful of putting their house on the market because they don't have any place to go.

What will build-out in The Woodlands do to home prices in and around the community in the next five–10 years?

I think it's kind of like waterfront property. There is only so much of it. So at some point it will help to increase the values in the area. But you have a lot of areas surrounding The Woodlands that are just as desirable, and again with the impact of the Exxon facility, it's really pulling a lot more into that Tomball, Magnolia area. It's a desirable area as well and in some ways may be easier to access coming in from the different paths that you can access the facilities.

What type of relationship do you have with homebuilders?

HAR has communicated the need for inventory. I have several developments where I have agents marking the development. One specifically in the Bellaire market area is not actually in Bellaire, 42 townhome patio homes going in, and the builder didn't want to start until we sold the three that we had on the ground, but its a catch-22. People aren't going to buy land anymore and wait 18 months for somebody to build something; they are not going to put their money into that. They are going to see if they can find something that is ready today. It's hard sometimes to convince those builders because they have been burned before and have the inventory sit on the ground.