October 2014 MLS Sales Statistics The October 2014 MLS statistics will be released this Wednesday morning, and here are some highlights of the report: Houston home sales experienced another monthly gain. Year-over-year sales climbed 12.3 percent, with a total of 6,639 single-family units sold. Months of inventory has dipped to a 2.8-months supply, down compared to the 3.1-months supply of last October. That is well below the current national supply of 5.3 months of inventory reported by NAR. Prices reached record highs for an October: the single-family home average price was $262,013 while the median price was $192,000. Total dollar volume was $2 billion, up from $1.7 billion one year earlier. Rentals of single-family homes shot up 13.1 percent year-over-year and the cost of renting those homes rose 4.0 percent to $1,711. For more detailed information, please visit the HAR Online Newsroom for this and all other HAR news releases.HAR Online Newsroom

Searchable School Data Feature is Here This new feature allows subscribers to create custom searches and auto-notifications for listings identified by the MLS system as being located within specific school boundaries. Listings entered into the MLS will automatically be assigned an elementary, middle and high school based on the listing’s property address. Initially, the system-generated school information will be for searching only and will not be displayed on listing reports. Listing agents will continue entering their own school information and these will be the schools displayed on MLS reports, as they are today. Updates will be released this Wednesday morning, Nov. 12, in Tempo. School boundaries will be available in Fusion within the next few weeks.

Tempo Service Update Property Archive Report (PAR) performance has been greatly improved; reports that previously took more than 10 seconds to load have been reduced to just over one second. An “Option End Date” reminder will now be sent to both Listing and Selling Agents two days before the end of the option period indicated in MLS. ‘Storm Shutters’ has been added as a new value to the ‘Exterior Description’ field. ‘Green Built Gulf Coast’ has been added as a new value to the ‘Green/Energy Certifications’ field. Several other bug fixes have also been addressed.

Weekly HAR Market Stat As many markets begin to prepare for colder weather and plan those festive family gatherings, a familiar seasonal slowing will begin to creep into the weekly numbers. Nonetheless, housing activity can be expected to float along at a seasonally healthy pace. With no big, negative economic news on the horizon, reliable sales, price and inventory figures, though not flashy, are quite welcome. In the Houston region, for the week ending November 2: New Listings increased 6.7% to 1,853 Pending Sales increased 26.2% to 1,706 Closed Sales decreased 0.1% to 1,946

Open Your Mind to Learning Texas Affordable Housing Specialist TAR and local associations are offering Texas Affordable Housing Specialist certification to REALTORS® throughout the state. The certification offers 12 MCE hours, including The Texas REALTOR® United Texas, a four-hour course, Help for Homebuyers a two-hour course, the four- hour FHA Lending for Workforce Housing and the two-hour Making Texans Homeowners for Life. REALTORS® who have earned the title of Texas Affordable Housing Specialist are listed by city on the TexasRealEstate.com website under Affordable Housing. The Texas Affordable Housing Specialist certification equips REALTORS® with the knowledge to help increase sustainable homeownership. It aims to educate about state programs available to assist buyers and to provide information to help at-risk homeowners manage their current situation. The more you know about affordable housing programs, the better you can assist your clients. *Students will attend in person and participate through a webinar-based class. To sign up for individual days, please contact our Professional Development Department. Date: Tue. & Wed., November 18 & 19 Time: 9 to 4 p.m. Location: HAR Bay Area Investment: $150 Register at Questions? Call ext. 6www.har.com/edu