So hot right now

Houston nails down No. 8 spot among fastest-moving luxury home markets

Houston's luxury real estate market is white hot.

TK Images for Martha Turner Sotheby's International Realty

For-sale signs on the lawns of luxury homes in Houston-area communities like Bellaire, River Oaks, West University Place, and The Woodlands are disappearing faster than in most U.S. markets.

November’s Realtor.com Luxury Housing Report shows luxury homes in the Houston metro area spent a median 61 days on the market in November, up 3.4 percent from last November. That puts the Houston metro in eighth place among the country’s fastest-moving luxury home markets.

Asking prices for Houston-area listings among top-tier luxury homes started at $794,576 in November, according to the Realtor.com report.

The Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) says stepped-up activity in the luxury home market helped boost the average single-family home price in the area to $422,552 in November. The luxury market — homes priced at $1 million and above — was the region’s top-performing home category in November, according to HAR, with sales up 23.4 percent compared with the same time in 2024.

The Realtor.com report ranks San Jose, California, as the fastest-moving metro for luxury home sales in November. There, luxury homes spent a median 56 days on the market, down 6.7 percent from last November.

“Luxury home dynamics are increasingly driven by local factors rather than national trends,” Antony Smith, senior economist at Realtor.com, says in a release. “Some high-cost metros are experiencing brisk demand and fast turnover, while others face slower sales even at elevated price points. Understanding these local dynamics is key for both buyers and sellers in today's luxury market.”

Roughly 200 miles west of Houston, the San Antonio metro lands on Realtor.com’s list of the country’s slowest-moving markets for luxury homes. San Antonio-area luxury homes lingered on the market for 99 days in November, up seven percent from the same time last year. That gave San Antonio eighth place on the list of the country’s slowest-moving luxury home markets.

Asking prices for San Antonio-area listings among top-tier luxury homes started at $766,548 in November, according to the report.

In November, 5.6 percent of home prices fell into the $750,000-and-above category, according to the San Antonio Board of Realtors (SABOR).

Bend, Oregon, tops Realtor.com’s list of the slow-moving markets for luxury homes. In the Bend metro area, luxury homes were stuck on the market for a median 146 days in November, up 14.1 percent from the same period in 2024.

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Market Upset

Houston shocks as one of 10 worst big cities for first-time homebuyers

Row of houses in Houston, Houston homes for sale

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Houston is the worst Texas city for first-time buyers.

The Houston housing market may not be for everyone. In a surprising turn of events, Houston has flopped to the bottom of a new list of the best U.S. cities for first-time homebuyers.

WalletHub's new study — which analyzes the affordability, quality of life, and real estate market in 300 U.S. cities — ranks Houston No. 271, or the 30th worst city overall in the U.S. to buy your first home. And, when broken down by city size, WalletHub ranks Houston the 9th worst big city for first-time buyers (No. 61 out of 69).

Houston's lack of appeal for first-time buyers is essentially due to its poor affordability and quality of life scores, rather than the state of the city's housing market, according to the report's findings.

H-town ranks 216th out of all 300 U.S. cities for its affordability, and it appears farther down the list for its quality of life, landing 284th nationally. Houston's cost of living, however, is better than most cities, ranking 51st overall.

The city's real estate market ranking is among the top 100 in the U.S., at No. 91, but that wasn't enough to outweigh its less-than-stellar rankings in the other main categories.

Other metrics (where No. 1 is the best and No. 150 is average) that factored into Houston's overall ranking include:

No. 31 – Total home energy cost
No. 77 – Rent-to-price ratio
No. 99 – Median home-price appreciation
No. 148 – Foreclosure rate
No. 246 – Real estate tax rate
No. 270 – Property crime rates

While Houston boasts the lowest Texas ranking on the list, it isn't the only Lone Star city that is less than favorable for first-time buyers. In fact, only one Texas spot — the Dallas suburb of McKinney — lands among the top 100 of the report. A total of 20 Texas cities rank outside the top 100, with Laredo (No. 200), Mesquite (No. 202), San Antonio (No. 208), and Dallas (No. 233) joining Houston as the state's worst.

First-time buyers across the country are entering the housing market at a difficult time, the report says. The National Association of Realtors reported the share of first-time homebuyers sank to an all-time low in 2025, to 21 percent, whereas the historic national average is 40 percent.

"Buying a home for the first time is an exciting and important milestone for many Americans, but achieving that milestone is getting more difficult as prices and interest rates continue to rise," the report's author wrote. "People willing and able to invest in a house this year must balance what they want and need with what they can afford. Often, people begin searching for their dream home without a realistic idea of market prices, interest rates or even their eligibility for a mortgage."

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