March 2017 Reports and April Preliminary Data

New titles for March had a late push to close the month out much stronger than last month’s preliminary look at the data suggested. The bulk of that push came from a large new home purchase by TMHA Community Member Ascentia on the last day of March for homes installed in Bexar and Harris counties.

Year-over-year, new single-section homes continue to drive growth despite multi-section titles slipping farther off last year’s pace. New single-section titles were enough to put March’s total homes up 3.8% over last March, and at the official close of Q1 new homes are up 4.4% over this same date in 2017. New multi-section titles are down, but the increase in single-section home sales is more than enough to offset total floors sold year-over-year.

At the county level, the impact of the Ascentia purchase can be seen in the large month-over-month gains for Bexar and Harris counties that landed in the top two spots. The rest of the top five also had huge month-over-month increases with all of the top five but Montgomery out pacing the state’s 30.4% increase over February.

On the year the top ten counties for new home installs are tracking as follows:

1. Harris -1.9%
2. Bexar +2.2%
3. Montgomery -6.5%
4. Travis -10.8%
5. Liberty +35.4%
6. Brazoria -2.8%
7. Tarrant +50%
8. Ector -10.8%
9. Dallas +93%
10. Midland +34%

The preliminary data for April is currently tracking flat over March, we’ll see if it can keep pace with the large late push March registered. In comparison to 2016, April is tracking down across the board for single and multi-section homes.