by Calculated Risk on 9/12/2018 01:40:00 PM

From the HAR: Hurricane Harvey Distorts Houston Housing Analysis

Thousands of people are still haunted by Hurricane Harvey’s devastating effects as they continue to rebuild their homes and lives. Even now, the storm is affecting the way housing numbers compare August 2018 to August 2017. The traditional year-over-year measurements that the Houston Association of Realtors® (HAR) uses to track market trends have been thrown out of whack because Harvey halted most real estate activity across the greater Houston market during the final week of August 2017 and beyond. …

According to the traditional, full-month numbers, Houston single-family home sales rose 37.2 percent year-over-year, with 8,358 homes sold in August versus 6,090 one year earlier when Harvey struck the region. HAR isolated single-family home sales for the period of August 1 - 24 since Harvey’s effects began to take a toll on the market on August 25, 2017. That analysis showed sales up 7.6 percent in August 2018, with 5,844 homes sold through August 24 of this year compared to 5,433 during the same time frame last year.
...
Total active listings, or the total number of available properties, were up 0.3 percent to 41,991.
emphasis added

Sales were impacted significantly by Hurricane Harvey. The impact on active listings was probably less significant.