Annual Texas Homebuyers and Sellers Report Reveals Interesting Findings

It stands to reason. In this hot housing market, homebuyers in Texas need more income to afford a home.
That was one of the more enlightening findings in the 2021 Texas Homebuyers and Sellers Report released by Texas Realtors.

The annual report lays out in-depth insights into the demographics, motivations, and opinions of Texas homebuyers and sellers who had a real estate transaction between July 2019 and June 2020. The report also features data related to Texas real estate consumers’ income, ethnicity, age, and perceptions of the home buying, and selling process.

Back to affordability, the median household income of Texas homebuyers last year was $112,500, which was up from $95,500 in 2019, and well ahead of the national median of $96,500.

In the first quarter of 2021, the median home sales price in Texas was up to a record $274,300, more than 13 percent from a year earlier.

“The increase in household income is encouraging as well as the broader base of diversity in homebuyers,” Marvin Jolly, Texas Realtors chairman, said in the new report. “Even with higher income levels, buyers are experiencing one of the most challenging markets in history right now, as the supply of homes for sale in most areas of Texas is extremely low.

“Although median household incomes continue to rise, median home prices have risen aggressively.”

Texas homebuyers

• They’re more diverse, while also earning higher incomes compared to national homebuyers. The percentage of homebuyers who identified as Hispanic/Latino was 18 percent, up from 14 percent the previous year; 7 percent identified as Black/African-American, up from 5 percent; and 6 percent identified as Asian/Pacific Islander, up from 4 four. White homebuyers fell from 78 percent to 69 percent between the two reporting periods.
• The majority (68 percent) were married couples, followed by single females (15 percent), single males (9 percent), and unmarried couples (6 percent).
• Their median age is 48, four years less than the previous year.
• 31 percent were first-time homebuyers, unchanged from last year.

Texas home sellers

• They listed the most popular reason for putting a home on the market was to move closer to friends or family, followed by job relocations and a desire for a larger home.
• They spent a median of nine years in their homes.
• The median sales price was $70,000 more than what sellers paid for their homes, and the median length the home spent on the market was four weeks.