Lubbock emerges as Texas’s strongest buyer’s market

Plus: RealPage reaches antitrust agreement with DOJ

December 02, 2025

👐 Good morning, it's Giving Tuesday.

Today's newsletter is 706 words, a 3.5-minute read.

1. Lubbock emerges as Texas’s strongest buyer’s market

The Lubbock metro housing market has emerged as Texas’s strongest buyer’s market, with inventory reaching 8.1 months of supply as of Nov. 22, 2025, according to HousingWire data.

This is a sharp contrast to the state’s overall 3.6 months of inventory, positioning the West Texas metro as an outlier in an otherwise relatively balanced Texas housing landscape.

Active listings in the Lubbock area climbed to 1,964 homes, a 32.8% increase from 1,479 a year ago.

2. RealPage reaches antitrust agreement with DOJ

The Justice Department has reached a settlement with RealPage over allegations that the company helped landlords coordinate rents by sharing pricing information through its software.

Under the proposed settlement, which still requires approval from a federal judge, RealPage’s software would no longer be allowed to use information about current leases to train its algorithm. It would also be barred from incorporating nonpublic data from competing landlords when recommending rents.

RealPage President and CEO Dirk Wakeham said in a statement that the agreement “brings the clarity and stability we have long sought and allows us to move forward with a continued focus on innovation and the shared goal of better outcomes for both housing providers and renters.”

A MESSAGE FROM DAVE YOUR MORTGAGE GUY

Real Estate Hack:

I didn’t have the money saved for my first rental property...
So I used a HELOC to pull $60K from my primary home
That became my down payment
Rental income covered the mortgage
I paid down the HELOC over time
Started investing years earlier than I planned
Built equity in two properties at once
Use what you already own.
This move changed everything for me. Watch the full story now!

Let’s talk to that client this could help!

3. Catch up quick

📈 FHFA raises conforming loan limit to $832750 for 2026. (FHFA)

⚠️ Zillow removes climate data from listings. (TheVerge)

🔔 Property taxes on homes ticked up in 2024. (NAHB)

📊 Home insurance costs set to jump another 16% by 2027. (Realtor.com)

A MESSAGE FROM ELITE TRADE CLUB

Stay ahead of the Market

Markets move fast. So should you.

Elite Trade Club’s 5-minute premarket alerts give you the real story and the stocks to watch—delivered before the bell.

Join 200K+ traders who start the day with an edge.

4. Homebuyers are getting record-high discounts

Zillow found that the typical home listing in the U.S. saw $25,000 in cumulative price cuts in October, matching the largest discounts the company has ever recorded.

While the average size of an individual price cut remains about $10,000, similar to recent years, sellers are making more frequent adjustments as listings take longer to sell. According to the report, 26.9% of all U.S. listings had at least one price reduction.

"Most homeowners have seen their home values soar over the past several years, which gives them the flexibility for a price cut or two while still walking away with a profit.”

Zillow senior economist Kara Ng

5. Charted: Delistings tick up to a decade high

According to Redfin, nearly 85,000 homes were pulled off the market in September, a 28% increase year-over-year and the highest total for any September in eight years.

About 70% of listings were considered “stale” (meaning they had been on the market for 60 days or more), and the typical delisted home sat for 100 days before being removed. This trend was especially common in Florida and Texas.

Delistings as a share of inventory recently ticked up to 5.5%

6. 1 Riva Row high-rise opens in The Woodlands

Howard Hughes Communities has opened 1 Riva Row, a 13-story, 268-unit residential development within The Woodlands, the 28,500-acre master-planned community located 27 miles north of downtown Houston.

The property offers 49 floor plans with one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. Monthly asking rents range from approximately $2,099 to $10,950 for upper-floor penthouses.

Amenities include a resort-style pool with cabanas and outdoor kitchens, coworking and flexible social spaces, a sports lounge with a golf simulator and billiards, a pet park and spa, curated art installations, bike and kayak storage (the property sits along the man-made Woodlands Waterway canal), package services, and electric vehicle charging stations.

☀️ Thank you for starting your day with us!

If you like this newsletter, your friends may too. Forward it to a friend, and let them know they can subscribe here.

Interested in advertising to 35k+ Texas Realtors? Email [email protected]