Julie Fuelling

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In what reads like a carbon copy of the February housing report, local home sales fell slightly in March while the average price of those homes rose.

In what reads like a carbon copy of the February housing report, local home sales fell slightly in March while the average price of those homes rose. The lower sales volume compares to sales activity in March 2010 that was driven, in part, by the federal government’s first-time home buyer tax credit incentive.

According to the latest monthly data compiled by the Houston Association of REALTORS® (HAR), March sales of single-family homes fell 4.4 percent versus one year earlier. As in February, the popular middle segments of the Houston housing market, consisting of homes priced between $80,000 and $250,000, experienced declining sales while the low and high ends saw an increase in number of sales. Compared to March of 2009, a year without unusual market factors such as Hurricane Ike in 2008 and the 2010 tax credit, single-family home sales were up 6.6 percent.

Luxury home sales boosted the average price of a single-family home for a third straight month. The average price rose 3.3 percent from March 2010 Read the rest of this entry »