We are excited to report that FORBES magazine earlier this month listed Corpus Christi as the 9th City that is leading the Nations Housing Recovery!
“This February is by far the best we have seen in the past 5-6 years, if this keeps up we will shatter last year’s numbers for sure” Realtor Cheri Sperling said.
The survey in Forbes was conducted on all metropolitan cities that exceeded the rest of the country statistically. Corpus Christi ranked ninth among 146 cities nationwide, with its low unemployment and median housing prices. The highlight of the article was that our real estate appreciation in the area grew 3.18 percent in 2012.
“We had a pretty good year in 2012,” Corpus Christi Association of Realtors President and CEO Gary Doran said. “We’re recovering well.”
The area housing market had excellent success in 2012 since slumping back in 2007, according to the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors.
This Data, certainly tells the story.
Median sales price of a home sold in the Coastal Bend was $142,500 in 2012, an increase of 5.6 percent from 2011 prices.
As 30-year fixed-rate mortgages dropped to 3.88 percent, Corpus Christi experienced an increase of 16.8 percent in units sold in 2012.
When the housing bubble busted in 2007 with a massive credit expansion and subprime loans were given to buyers who were at much higher risk of defaulting. CCAR had lost almost half of its 1,500 members by 2011 after the market had an incredibly slow year.
“Numbers in inventory were extremely low in the MLS, and I remember speaking to many realtors who couldn’t not make a living and had a very difficult time paying their bills,” Cheri Sperling, said.
Today the market has shifted to benefit sellers, with some buyers having houses swept away from them after making an offer.
Cheri Sperling attributes the increase in our housing market to news of Schlitterbahn Water park, increase in inner Texas cities beginning to see Corpus Christi as a great 2nd home destination and of course the expansion of Eagle Ford Shale oil and gas exploration.
The influx of people has brought the rental management side of my business to be at near capacity to almost full, with leased property staying on the market for very short periods of time, Sperling said.
“As our rental prices and demand goes up, it makes it a better market to buy, particularly in many of our dry and waterfront lots” she said.
Residential Home Sales in the Coastal Bend
Category 2011 2012
Homes sold 3,640 4,249
Average sales price $156,751 $170,191
Average days on market 109 120
Median sales price $135,000.00 $142,500.00
30-year fixed rate mortgages 4.25 3.88
Source: Corpus Christi Association of Realtors