1. January 2014 MLS Sales Statistics The January 2014 MLS statistics will be released on Tuesday morning, and here are some quick takeaways: January marked the 32 nd consecutive month of positive sales, with single-family sales up 1.7 percent versus one year earlier. Contracts closed on 3,957 homes, holding inventory levels at December’s 2.6-month supply, which is down from the 3.6-month supply recorded in January 2013. Prices rose to the highest levels for a January: the single-family home median price reached $177,000 while the average price was $244,070. Total dollar volume was $1.1billion, up 26.8 percent from $905 million one year earlier. For more detailed information, please visit the HAR Online Newsroom for this and all other news releases.HAR Online Newsroom

2. Houston Leads Nation in Home Construction Houston led the nation in single-family home construction in 2013, with a significant lead over the No. 2 market, Dallas, according to housing consulting firm Metrostudy. Last year, Houston area home builders accounted for 28,339 housing starts, followed by Dallas-Fort Worth at 21,200 and No. 3 Atlanta with 13,119 starts. National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) Chief Economist David Crowe says the key to Houston’s home building boom is job growth. With energy firms, such as Exxon Mobil and Chevron moving employees to Houston, the city added 80,000 new jobs last year. Earlier this month, NAHB released a bullish forecast for 2014, predicting the nation will have a 32 percent increase to 822,000 single-family home starts in 2014, followed by a 41 percent gain in 2015. The Houston market has faced a shortage of labor and lots. Construction tradesmen left the industry during the crash and land developers didn’t crank up their lot creation machines soon enough to supply lots for this latest boom.

3. Weekly HAR Market Stat With the first half of February under our belts, it's safe to say that housing has managed to weather the heart of winter with little issue. Although 2014 activity may appear sluggish compared to gangbuster 2013, housing has stabilized and should continue to find moderate footing. Look for some signs of inventory and sales activity thawing, but keep your jacket handy as activity always varies by location and segment. In the Houston region, for the week ending February 9: New Listings increased 3.0% to 2,138 Pending Sales increased 9.3% to 1,672 Closed Sales decreased 2.8% to 855

4. Questions? 713-629-1900 ext. 6 Graduate to Higher Learning Register at www.har.com/edu Graduate REALTOR® Institute – GRI-2 Marketing The GRI designation is the most widely recognized of the national real estate designations. Consisting of three courses, each is taught by experts in their respective fields. This module offers Seller Services, Buyer Services, Technology and Environment & Green Building. GRI courses may be taken in any order and satisfy your 9 hours of non-legal MCE requirements. TREC rules mandate that each student be on time. Please make sure to bring your license number to class. TAR provides a one-time, $50 coupon for qualifying students who register through HAR.com. Upon entering a user name and password, HAR will immediately verify with TAR that the coupon is valid and the discount will immediately be applied. All other courses are full-price. Date: February 20-21, 24-25 Time: 8:15 a.m. – 5 p.m. Location: HAR Bay Area Investment: $295