Should You Buy a Houston Area Home Now or Wait?

Is the current Houston housing market a buying opportunity—or should you keep renting and wait?

Michael Flores explains why there is no universal answer, what the latest Greater Houston market indicators mean, the hidden cost of waiting, and the financial warning signs that may mean you should not buy yet.

This episode is designed for first-time buyers, Houston-area renters, military families, and anyone relocating to Katy, Cypress, Fulshear, Richmond, Sugar Land, or the surrounding suburbs.

You will also hear the five questions Michael asks clients before discussing interest rates, home prices, or specific neighborhoods.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Everybody wants to know the same thing. Is now a good time to buy a house in CD, Cypress, or Foolshire? The answer isn't simple as a yes or no. I'll break down right now what's happening in this market. Understand this. If you're relocating to Houston, buying a house or selling a house, it's not just as simple as should I buy or sell now. Have you noticed something though? Every time rates move, every time there's a new headline, every time someone talks about real estate or some Yahoo predicts something on YouTube, I get phone calls. And the phone calls are should I buy right now? See, I've asked yourself this question before. I don't know. See, don't listen to your neighbor or your co-worker or some influencer who makes up something but has never sold anything in Texas. This message is specifically for you right now. So before we get started, let me make sure I introduce myself. My name is Michael Flores, and I'm a former United States Marine and military policeman. And now I get to help families buy and sell homes in Cyprus, Cady, Fulshire, and all the Houston areas. This channel is built around one mission, giving you honest feedback and information about what it's like to buy in this area. So if you like what you hear, subscribe to our channel. Now, let's get back to that one question. Is now a good time to buy? But that's actually the wrong question because there isn't one answer that applies to everyone. Buying a house isn't like buying TV or on Black Friday. Buying a house isn't like picking out shoes where you go try them on and see if you like it. The housing market matters, and what's going on right now in the industry matters. Inventory matters, interest rates matter. That's something that I think our industry doesn't explain very well. Instead, too many people go like, buy now, or wait, it's gonna crash. Reality lives somewhere in the middle. So let's talk about what the market's actually doing. Before we get too emotional, let's get factual. The average days on market in Houston, Katie area is about 60-70 days. Months of inventory, depending on the neighborhood, three to four months of inventory. The average sales price is somewhere in the 450s, and what we're noticing is that most houses who are staged right and priced right, some are getting them, well, multiple offers. So what does this mean for you? It means that if inventory is a little bit higher than last year, like it is, that buyers have more choices. It also means, though, that it's not completely a buyer's market. Markets are rarely completely hot and completely cold, they're usually balanced. And right now we're in a balanced market. That's why somebody shopping in Bridgeland may have a different experience than what shopping in single ranch. It's two different neighborhoods, two different experiences. So here's the biggest mistakes that most buyers make. They become obsessed with timing the market. They want the perfect interest rate, they want the perfect price, the perfect economy, the perfect yard, the perfect pool. Perfect doesn't exist. It's fake, it's not real. If you wait for everything to line up perfectly, you're never gonna buy anything because something is always off. Either the rates are too high or the politics are wrong or the economy isn't right, or maybe your job feels unstable, or maybe you don't like who's elected, or maybe the inflation isn't right. There's always something to wait on. Always. But guess what? It actually costs you a lot of money. Let's calculate what very few people are willing to talk about, which is the cost of waiting. You see, most buyers think about purchasing price. Very few think about opportunity costs. Imagine you're paying $2,500 a month in rent. That's $30,000 a year, my friends. That's $150,000 in five years. And guess what? You own nothing. No equity, no appreciation, no leverage, no savings, nothing. Meanwhile, someone who purchased a home may have been building principal with every payment. They've built equity. Their home is probably appreciated, even though it may have slowed. They've been paying themselves instead of paying a landlord. That's a huge difference. Let's rewind a few years ago. I remember talking to buyers in 2021. Many of them were like, ah, prices couldn't possibly continue rising. So they decided to wait. They decided that right now wasn't the right time. And guess what? Since 2021, prices have gone up. People who waited are paying more for the same house if they had bought in 2021. Now, could things go down? Sure. Nobody knows what's going to happen, but history consistently shows one thing. And that one thing is that trying to mark trying to time the market is a foolish game. Owning real estate historically has always been one of the best ways to ensure that we have created an asset. See, part of the issue is that people think they're smarter than what's happening in the industry. Don't buy just because somebody in real estate tells you to buy or that's going to go up. Don't buy just because you feel like, oh, I need, you know, this or that. Buy because you understand what's happening in the market and it's the right time for you. Now, sometimes you should wait. And guess what? Real estate agents don't want to tell you that. Your finances may not be stable. Maybe your income changes too often. Maybe you're carrying a high interest debt. Maybe you don't have enough emergency fund. Can you buy? Maybe. Should you buy? That's a different question. I would much rather help someone save the money, get financially strong so that they buy a property and do not find be feel financially overwhelmed. We don't want to create anxiety. We don't want to be house poor. We want to purchase a home and feel good about the life we live. See, there's something interesting I noticed. People become comfortable making temporary payments so rent feels safe, but they become uncomfortable during permanent payments because it's unfamiliar. The fear of making the wrong decision becomes greater and they eventually say they're going to buy, but then they eventually don't because years go by and the prices continue to rise. So when buyers ask me, Michael, what should you do? What would I do? I ask them five questions. Here are five questions to ask yourself. How long do you plan to stay? How stable is your income? Do you have an emergency fund? And will your monthly payments still allow you to enjoy your life? Notice what's missing? I'll never mention interest rates. I'll never ask them, what do you think about the economy? Because the loan is the one piece of the equation. Life is a bigger picture. What type of life do you want to live? So is now a good time to buy? Here's my answer. If you're financially prepared, if you plan to stay in your current home five to seven years, if buying improves your future with your family, and if buying helps your lifestyle, then do it. Don't do it just because the headlines tell you to. Don't do it just because some coworker said to. And don't do it just because some guy like me says you should. When you're ready, the truth is that's when you buy. When you're ready, it doesn't matter what the interest rate is. When it's ready, it doesn't matter what the economy says, doesn't matter who the president is. And honestly, you will never feel completely ready because the question isn't, are things perfect? The question is what kind of life do I want to live? And can I live my current life in buying a new property? In other words, what does your lifestyle afford? If you're thinking about buying a house in CD, Cypress, Folkshire, or Brookshire, no pressure, no sales pitch, give me a call. We'll have an honest conversation about what it takes to purchase. What does your financial situation look like? How do we help you build wealth using real estate? And how do we ensure that you get to live the lifestyle you want? You still want to go on trips, you want to eat at nice restaurants, you want to go out and take the kids out and do certain activities? Well then maybe we need to have a conversation about what your budget really is and what you really should buy at this very moment. If you found this helpful at all, subscribe or share this with someone else. And yet, this is where you're gonna get the truth. Have a great day, get you some.