The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that the coastal city’s robust housing market shows no signs of slowing, but affordable homes are in short supply. The inventory of vacant homes in Corpus Christi is one fourth the size it was just three years ago, but asking prices have climbed 19 percent over the same period, said Warren Andrich, president and CEO of the Corpus Christi Association of Realtors.
“All things point to a continued favorable housing market,” Andrich told the South Side Business Council.
There are 1,860 houses available in the city as of Thursday, down 74.5 percent from 2011 when there were 7,300 houses on the market. In that time, thousands of job seekers have converged on the Coastal Bend, lured by opportunity from the Eagle Ford Shale energy play. Economists have speculated as many as 10,000 jobs will spring from it over the next five to seven years.
And that has helped drive up home prices.
The average sale price for a home in Corpus Christi was about $190,000 in June, up from $157,000 in June 2009, Andrich said. That’s a 21-percent increase.
“It’s supply and demand,” Andrich said. “We live in a place people want to come, so the demand is high.”
http://www.caller.com/news/building-our-future/realty-chief-discusses-hot-housing-market_93494936