Heights Price Trends

Heights home prices have a lot of variables of course, but the two big decisions a buyer has to make are location and new vs. old. After you narrow down the location you have to chose between new (or at least built in last 10 years or so) or old. New is typically tall and skinny on small lots; old is smaller, but on big lot. Below are some some charts on price trends in the Heights. Deciding on old vs new/recent may be a difficult choice for some of you. Here is an old post I did comparing Old vs. New. The post is several years old and prices don’t relate, but the comparison is still valid.

Resale Home Prices

Home prices are complicated.

Recently Sold Heights Bungalow Recently Sold Bungalow

Each area has different lot sizes and differing levels of desirability.
Woodland Heights and the core area of Houston Heights are the most sought after. The areas nearer the edges, i.e. Heights Annex, Sunset Heights, Brooke Smith are not as pricey. So, in looking at prices be sure to compare apples to apples.

Renovated Heights Home

The table below  gives prices for resale homes – not new homes or even recent homes. These are all older homes that have been remodeled. These are mostly Victorians and Craftsman bungalows from the 1910’s and 1930’s. I deleted most of the newer homes because they generally were built on smaller lots (2 houses where previously there was one).

Houston Heights Homes-Resale 1st Q 2015
Description Price Range House SF Lot Size Price/SF DOM* SP/LP**
1 Bath Homes $335K-$530K 966-1602 SF 4356-6600 SF $287-$469/SF 14 1
Avg. $420.4K 1170 SF 5372 SF $359/SF
2 Bath Homes $452K-$990K 1358-2534 SF 4300-7836 SF $255-$347/SF 28 0.99
Avg. $677K 2186 SF 6176 SF $310/SF
* DOM = Days on Mkt. **LP/SP = Ratio of List Price to Sales Price

I don’t expect any softening of prices with the oil price slump, but I do expect the last two columns to change. Days on Market should slowly edge back toward historical 90 days; and the ratio of list price to sold prices should drop a little (96%-97% were the norm in years past).

 

New Home Prices on Small Lots

Heights style New Home with Porch

New home prices can’t all be lumped together; they have to be sorted by land size and location. In the suburbs the difference in home prices isn’t affected much by lot size. If you have a lot 3000 SF bigger than your neighbor’s its only $3/SF more, so no big deal. In the Heights where land is $50-$80/SF, a big lot makes a huge difference in price. For this reason I have sorted out new construction homes on full sized lots (4500+ SF) from those with smaller lots. Other homes written about in other posts.

 

New Homes on Small Lots (2500 -3500 SF lots).

Houston Heights New Home Prices – 1st Q 2015
Description Price Range House SF Lot Size Price/SF SP/LP*
Sold in 1st Q $607K-$931K 2470-3042 SF *** $216-$306/SF 1.01
$684K Avg. 2668 SF Avg. 3238 SF Avg. $256/SF Avg.
*LP/SP = Ratio of List Price to Sales Price

A couple of notes about table above.
Homes on smaller lots typically are of two styles:

  • Garage-front: If there is no alley access, then the home is normally front-loading. There is no alley access for the garage, and the lot is too narrow to allow a driveway. Thus the only option is for the garage to face the street and the house be built above and behind it.
  • Porch-front: If there is an alley behind the house, then a typical “Heights style” home can be built…porches in front; detached garage behind.

When buying, one of the options you have is bigger homes on smaller lots (the homes discussed here), or smaller old homes on big lots.

There are no mass builders at this price point. There were 3 big homes sold in 1st Q and 21 on the market or being built now. These 24 homes were built by 17 builders…thus 1 or 2 homes is typically all a builder is making in this price range.

One other thing worth noting:  The average price per SF ($310/SF) is the same for new homes. This has historically been true. Prices are equivalent for gorgeous remodels and for new homes (with location and lot sizes being equal).

Big New Homes on Large Lots

Big New Heights Home by HDT Builders

The table below shows early 2015 prices of these big homes, pricing starting at $1M. The Heights has never been a location for high density homes. As land prices continue to escalate though more homes are being built in communities with a common drive. Less land cost means lower prices. Some high end condos are being built too. These are typically built around the edges of the Heights.

Houston Heights New Home Prices – 1st Q 2015
*LP/SP = Ratio of List Price to Sales Price
Description Price Range House SF Lot Size Price/SF SP/LP*
Sold in 1st Q $1.25M-$1.36M 3616-4257 SF 6600 SF $294-$342/SF 1
$1.31M Avg. 3952 SF Avg. 6600 SF Avg. $331/SF Avg.
Available $775K-$1.65M 2619-4265 SF 5000-6600 SF $296-$406/SF N/A
New Homes $1.2M Avg. 3564 SF Avg. 6056 SF Avg. $310/SF

Prices for Land

Land prices have doubled over the last couple of years. $80/SF is not uncommon in parts of Houston Heights and Woodland Heights. Even Sunset Heights is $55-$60/SF. This is very popular for new homes. Brooke Smith used to be very affordable, but $50/SF is about the going rate now.

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If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at 713 868-9008

Heights Real Estate Market 2021

Heights Real Estate Market 2021

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Heights Monthly Sales

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on September 13, 2014
Heights Monthly Sales

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Filed in Heights Price Trends by on September 12, 2014
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Filed in Heights Price Trends by on May 17, 2014
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Filed in Heights Price Trends by on May 8, 2014
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Heights Home Sales-January 2014

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on February 5, 2014
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Houston Hotness Chart

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on October 17, 2013
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Real Estate Hotness Chart Channel 13 recently aired a piece on Houston’s hot real estate market. Of course everybody knows that our real esate market is hot, and everybody is talking about it, but they went one step more show and showed a Hotness Chart. This chart that shows relative “hotness” of different areas. I know, it […]

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First Ward Land Prices

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on October 2, 2013
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First Ward Land Prices Are Way Up Mid 2014 Update: This is an old post from 10/2013. Prices are up more. Top dollar now is about $50/SF…amazing. I guess people love being near downtown and Washington Ave. Like everything inside the loop or close-in,  land prices in First Ward are up…way up. New construction has […]

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Heights Land Price

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on August 29, 2013
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Heights Land Price up Dramatically A Brief History of Heights Land Prices The Heights is going through growing pains again. When I first fell in love with the Heights and moved here 20+ years ago, very few people wanted to live here. “Better have a gun and a big dog” was the majority opinion. No […]

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Heights Home Sales

Filed in Heights Price Trends by on July 18, 2013
Heights Home Sales

Heights Home Sales Crazy Home sales all over Houston have been crazy for several months now. The number of buyers keeps increasing faster than people are selling. This HAR.com link discusses the fact that sales are up, prices are up, inventory down. It is definitely sounding like a broken record. The chart below is specifically […]

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