https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/20/rebound-in-houston-home-sale-fuel-uptick-nationally.html

REBOUND IN HOUSTON HOME SALES FUEL UPTICK NATIONALLY

This article details a 4% increase in home sales in the Houston area. People were surprised to see this increase after the devastating Hurricane Harvey hurt the business, home owners, and economic growth. Home sales in August were down 24%, so the 4% increase is rather significant.

A lot of analysts attributed this increase to investors wanting to buy hurricane damaged homes at a discounted price in order to to fix them up and turn a profit. A lot of homeowners in that are were willing to take a bite on the value of their home and sell it at a lower than ideal price. Another attributing factor was a delay in the closure of sales that happened in August. As we know, the hurricane hurt economic activity in the Houston area. However, the increase in home sales can lead us to think that it wasn't hurt as bad as we thought. Realtors in the area have said that the Houston real estate is strong and tough enough to handle to downfalls of the hurricane.

This increase in home sales in the Houston area was also beneficial to overall national home sales growth. Home sales nationally rose 0.7% in September, which beat estimates that were predicting a drop in home sales. This is a good sign for the both the local community of Houston as well as the national community.

This is significant being an increase in home sales is a correlation to an increase in consumption by individuals. People buying homes and consuming the housing service is one indicator on the quality of our economy and the strength of the housing market, which is a critical industry. As the community of Houston continues to recover from the damage, it will be interesting to see the affects that has on. the real estate market.