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In December, single-family home sales were down 4.1 percent compared with the same month in 2017 the second straight month of declining year-over-year sales, according to the Houston Realtors Association.

"When I talk to other Realtors, I think the second half of the year was really slow," said real estate agent Shad Bogany. "Builders were telling us it was slow. Certain neighborhoods, we're not getting any traffic at all, especially where you had resales and new homes in the same neighborhood."
The major culprit appears to be mortgage rates. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage jumped to nearly 5 percent in 2018, from lows near 3 percent in recent years. While rates have again retreated, falling last week to 4.5 percent, experts said buyers took note of the trends.

Anticipating higher rates, they rushed to purchase homes early in the year, frontloading 2018 sales, said Patrick Jankowski, senior vice president of research for the Greater Houston Partnership,

"We've been spoiled with the lower rates for so long and they're now getting to normal," Bogany said. "Taxes are higher on your home, homeowners insurance is higher. I think people are weighing all that."

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Diggity said:

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I'm reading it as things that could cause a slowdown in the near future, but I still don't buy it.

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