July MLS Sales StatisticsThe July 2012 MLS statistics will be released on Tuesday morning, and here are some quick takeaways:

•July sales of single-family homes soared 27.0 percent versus one year earlier, accounting for the 14th consecutive month of positive sales and steepest one-month sales gain in nearly a year.

•The robust sales activity is keeping local housing inventory at the lowest level in more than five years.

•At $231,484, the single-family home average price reached the highest level for a July in Houston, while the single-family median price of $170,000 matched the historic high set in June 2012.

•Single-family home rentals rose 15.0 percent compared to July 2011, while the average rent among single-family lease homes reached an all-time high of $1,669.

•For more detailed information, please visit the HAR Online Newsroom for this and all other news releases.

Houston’s Average Salary Increase is Among Nation’s Highest

• Houston’s average salary increase beat the nationwide average, which inched up slightly in 2012, according to an Aon Hewitt survey.

• Illinois-based Aon Hewitt, the human resources business of London-based Aon Plc, surveyed more than 1,300 U.S. companies and found that base pay increases for salaried exempt workers averaged 2.8 percent in 2012. That’s up incrementally from 2.7 percent in 2011. Executive pay also increased from 2.8 percent to 2.9 percent, though salaried nonexempt workers' pay dipped from 2.8 percent to 2.7 percent.

• Those figures are still significantly higher than the all-time low of 1.8 percent, the average in 2009.

• Meanwhile, Houston’s average increase was 3.2 percent in 2012, and Aon Hewitt estimates the city's average for 2013 will be 3.3 percent.

Weekly HAR Market StatDo you hear that? It's the sound of carts shifting through the back-to-school aisles, filling quickly with notebooks, pencils and other supplies. It's the sound of teenagers shuffling through dorms and down storied lanes on their first college orientation. It's the sound of young professionals readying themselves for their first big job, freshly shorn and tailored. It's the sound of a family preparing for the leap from the overcrowded apartment to the "starter" home that will see their first into high school. The end of summer sure can seem an awful lot like spring. Let's see if the housing market says the same.

In the Houston region, for the week ending August 12: • New Listings decreased 2.8% to 2,067

• Pending Sales increased 30.6% to 1,556• Closed Sales increased 10.0% to 1,174

Questions? 713-629-1900 ext. 6

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