Real Estate This Week — from Sonal Shah Houston. Tuesday, August 18, 2026.
40,750 homes for sale — a record — and sales still went up
Houston has never had this many homes for sale — 40,750 in July, the most HAR has ever counted. And buyers didn’t blink: sales rose 1.6% anyway.
Prices held steady. The typical home sold for $340,000 — up a little from a year ago, not down. Pending sales rose 2.6%, homes took 53 days to sell versus 50 last year, and the supply of homes reached 5.5 months.
Affording a home here has gotten easier in 21 of the last 24 months — better than the national trend of 15 of 24. And HAR’s own economist notes Houston’s sales are back to pre-pandemic normal while the national market sits about 20% below it.
The market moved at the ends: million-dollar homes up 9.4%, homes under $100,000 up 4.2% — and the $250,000–$500,000 middle, where most Fort Bend homes live, up just 0.4%.
Sonal’s take: Before you set a price, the question is not “how is Houston doing.” The question is “how many homes in MY price range came up for sale near me last month” — that is the list your buyer is choosing from, and I can pull it for your street in minutes.
Source: Houston Association of REALTORS® — July 2026 Housing Market Update, released Aug 12, 2026. har.com
Tesla just asked to build a $10 billion plant in Fort Bend
Tesla filed a formal application for a solar-panel factory on about 3,000 acres near Richmond — a $10.1 billion investment, with 9,712 permanent jobs once the plant is fully running (the jobs build up through 2033).
It is an application, not a done deal — Tesla says it is still weighing a site in another state. But the filing is real, it sits in Lamar CISD, and it targets opening in early 2029.
And there is a catch inside the same story: the homebuilders’ own association warns that big AI projects compete with builders for land, workers and power — which can make new homes harder and costlier to build.
Sonal’s take: An employer that commits ten years ahead is the strongest signal a housing market can get — stronger than any single month’s mortgage rate. But the same boom makes new homes harder to build. More jobs plus fewer new homes is, plainly said, good news for the value of the home you already own.
Sources: Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts — JETI application J0050, Tesla’s own filing (signed Jul 22, 2026, public Aug 6) · National Association of Home Builders, via HousingWire, August 2026.
The $250,000 ‘Barbie dreamhouse’ the whole internet knows by name
An 850-square-foot home near Columbus, Ohio is painted pink and teal from head to toe — and the internet fell in love. It listed at $250,000 and went viral overnight.
Inside: a pink penny-tile backsplash, a retro fridge, and floor-to-ceiling windows. The owners ran it as a vacation rental before listing it.
Inside the Pink Opal. Photo: Samantha Dettinger/Reimagine Branding and Marketing, via Homes.com
Sonal’s take: Character is not a defect. You do not have to paint your house pink — but the homes that get remembered are the homes that dare to be themselves. In a market with 40,750 choices, being forgettable is the bigger risk.
Source: Homes.com News, “Barbie’s dreamhouse, midcentury style,” Apr 24, 2026.
An AI executive paid $70 million for a house — double the old record
A 12-acre estate in Hillsborough, California just sold for $70 million — the biggest Northern California sale this year, and double the town’s old record.
It took six years and 110 subcontractors to build. The buyer works in artificial intelligence and wanted to live near Silicon Valley.
Sonal’s take: Watch the pattern, not the price tag. New industries mint new buyers, and new buyers reset what neighborhoods are worth. That same pattern is arriving in our county — Tesla’s filing above is the Fort Bend chapter of this exact story. When the jobs move somewhere, the home values follow.
Source: ABC7 San Francisco, Aug 7, 2026.
Wondering what your home would sell for right now? Text me your address — 713-398-6566 — and I will send you what homes like yours are actually closing for on your street. No obligation, no sales pitch. — Sonal Shah, REALTOR®, LPT Realty