TYLER (TYLER MORNING TELEGRAPH) - Tyler area home sales surged 8.9 percent in September, compared to the same time last year.
There were 281 units sold last month, a jump from 258 homes in September 2011, according to figures released Monday by the Greater Tyler Association of Realtors.
September market statistics continue to indicate a strengthening real estate market, said Mary Smith, RE/MAX broker associate and chairwoman of the Greater Tyler Association of Realtor's PR Committee. Existing home sales for seven of the last nine months have seen a year-over-year increase.
Last month's sales fell by 11.35 percent from the 317 homes sold in August.
The median home price for September was $142,900, a 5.85 percent spike from the $135,000 median home price reported a year ago, but a 1.45 percent slump from the month before.
"While median prices remain down slightly, likely due to the concentration of first time home buyers and investors in the market, many agents are anticipating an increase in prices toward the end of the year," Ms. Smith said. "First time home buyers and investors are very interested in taking advantage of the historically low interest rates, but other types of buyers are starting to engage in the home buying process in order to capitalize on the low interest rates as well."
Ms. Smith said they have documented a decrease in the average number of days a home stays on the market before it is sold. Last year for the same period, homes were on the market an average of 132 days before selling and so far this year, homes have averaged only 106 days on the market -- an almost 20 percent decrease in the amount of time it takes to sell a home. Year to date, there has been an increase of 12 percent in existing home sales.
"All of this data continues to point toward a steady recovery for the East Texas real estate market," Ms. Smith said.
Members of the Tyler Area Builders Association also weighed in on the housing figures.
Kevin Humphrey, owner of Kevin Humphrey Homes, Inc., said the numbers are in line with what he is seeing in his own business.
"My experience has been that we've seen a big uptick in activity over the last two months," he said. "I don't know what's inspired it, but people seem to be more confident than they were. The number of contacts and the quality of those contacts is improving. People seem ready to build."
Humphrey said several of the people he has signed contracts with lately are in the oil and gas business or in health care -- some for $400,000 houses.
"On a house that size, you easily have 250 people who work on it," he said. "And that's just the people doing the labor. That doesn't include the people who work at the lumber yard, at the flooring stores, selling appliances, at the surveying companies or banks. Whenever we build a house, it spreads widely throughout the community. That's why home building is so important to a community.
Kim Galyean, who along with her husband Bill owns Galyean Homes in Mineola, said they have several projects, including building a lot of weekend homes for people in the Dallas Metroplex area.
"We're still building, and we're still very busy," she said.
While they are building fewer "starter" homes, she said their company is seeing a lot of people choosing the Mineola area for weekend or retirement homes.
"The strength in our local numbers makes me feel a lot better and a lot more at ease," she said. "But I still think there are a lot of people waiting to see what happens with this election."
Smith County saw 10 foreclosures in September, according to the latest figures available from RealtyTrac.
According to Freddie Mac, the national average commitment rate for a 30-year, conventional, fixed-rate mortgage was 3.47 percent which is down from its record low in July of 3.55 percent, GTAR reported. Recordkeeping began in 1971.
