All across the U.S., there are typically fewer homes for sale right now than there were this time last year — except in Texas. Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio are all seeing an increase in inventory, which contradicts the main findings in Zillow's February Real Estate Market Report.
The real estate and rental marketplace found that, nationally, inventory is down (nearly 3 percent) and home values are up (6.9 percent, their highest since June 2007). This combo signals another competitive home shopping season.
In Texas markets, our home values are certainly rising, but so is the number of homes for sale.
Austin, in fact, has the highest inventory increase in the report: up a whopping 24 percent over last year. Home values are right in line with the nation at 7 percent higher ($264,800), which is also similar to San Antonio's 6 percent. The availability of homes in the Alamo City is up 16.4 percent.
Dallas-Fort Worth has 4.1 percent more homes on the market, and they're valued at 11.1 percent more than they were this time last year. That's among the top three increases in the country, second only to Seattle and Tampa.
With its 3.1 percent increase in available homes, Houston is well ahead of most of the cities in the study, even if its 4.5 percent home value increase is below that of the national average.
Homes are actually scarcest in Minneapolis-St. Paul, while Las Vegas is right behind No. 1 Austin for its abundance of homes.
