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HAR: Area housing sales rebound in March Staff Reports Despite economic uncertainty, the Greater Houston housing market blossomed in March as sales rebounded amid a budding supply of homes. Easing interest rates and moderating home prices attracted more prospective buyers as there continues to be a shift toward a buyer’s market. According to the Houston Association of Realtors’ March 2025 Housing Market Update, single-family home sales across the Greater Houston area rose 2.6 percent year-over-year, with 7,429 units sold. It is the highest sales volume recorded since July 2024. Pending sales, which were up 12.7 percent compared to last March, indicate that the spring homebuying season will likely continue to be active. A total of 32,866 homes were available on the market in March, reaching the highest point since June 2011. The increase in inventory is great news for prospective buyers offering the best selection opportunities in 14 years. The median home price edged up by 1.5 percent to $335,000 while the average price was up 3.7 percent year-over-year to $427,221. The growth in home prices is largely due to the high end of the market, which saw a surge in activity in March. The luxury segment ($1 million+) had the strongest performance with a 26.9 percent increase in transactions compared to the same time last year. The segment with homes priced up to $100,000, which makes up 1.0 percent of the market, saw a 14.0 percent decline in transactions. All other housing segments experienced an increase in sales in March. “Lower mortgage rates are giving Houston homebuyers a sense of optimism, but many are still proceeding with caution,” said HAR Chair Shae Cottar with LPT Realty. “It’s important to acknowledge that current economic headwinds, including the impact of new tariffs, are putting downward pressure on interest rates. These lower rates, coupled with growing inventory and moderating home prices, create an opportunity for both buyers and sellers.” March Monthly Market Comparison The Greater Houston real estate market held steady in March, with total property sales statistically flat at 8,753 units. Sales of single-family homes and country homes were in positive territory. All other property types experienced a slowdown in sales. Total dollar volume increased 5.1 percent to $3.6 billion. Active listings, or the total number of available properties, were 29.3 percent higher than last year’s volume. The number of open houses reached an all-time high in March. Realtors hosted a total of 45,311 open houses, which is up 48.9 percent compared to the same time last year. Single-Family Homes Update Single-family home sales bounced back in March, a month after their first decline in six months. Sales in the Greater Houston area were 2.6 percent above last year’s figures, with 7,429 homes sold compared to 7,240 in 2024. The average home price rose 3.7 percent year-over-year to $427,221 while the median price experienced a modest increase of 1.5 percent to $335,000. The price per square foot increased to $179 from $176 last year. The market continued to see a sustained increase in inventory. There were 32,866 active listings of single-family homes in March, which is up 36.4 percent year-over-year. It is the highest volume of active listings since June 2011 when there were 32,970 units. Days on Market, or the actual time it took to sell a home, climbed from 55 to 62 days. Months of inventory reached a 12-year high, with the months’ supply increase from 3.4 last year to 4.6 months. The National Association of Realtors reports a national inventory level of 3.5 months. Broken out by housing segment, March sales performed as follows: • $1 - $99,999: decreased 14.0 percent • $100,000 - $149,999: increased 3.0 percent • $150,000 - $249,999: increased 0.6 percent • $250,000 - $499,999: decreased 0.4 percent • $500,000 - $999,999: increased 3.6 percent • $1M and above: increased 26.9 percent HAR also breaks out sales figures for existing single-family homes. In March, existing home sales edged up by 0.7 percent to 4,940 units. The average price rose 6.1 percent to $440,329, and the median sales price increased 3.6 percent to $335,000.
SEE HAR PAGE 3
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George has a rough road ahead By Ken Fountain KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
This is a “reporter’s notebook,” a piece that falls somewhere between a straight news story and an opinion piece. Well, perhaps more of a pull-back-the-curtain look at how the journalistic sausage is made. In previous columns, I’ve discussed the difficulty I sometimes have in acting both as the primary news reporter for the Fort Bend Star and an occasional columnist, particularly when it comes to opining on local matters that I directly cover. It can be a tricky balancing act. Sometimes, the news moves faster than even the best reporter’s ability to do it justice. This reporter doesn’t presume to count himself among the “best”, but that’s the position I found myself in last week with the fast-moving developments involving Fort Bend County Judge KP George’s latest legal troubles. It may be helpful for readers to know that as editor of the Fort Bend Star, I put the print edition of the paper together on Mondays, with final edits done on Tuesday mornings before the pagination team sends the finished edition to the presses. Last Monday, I revised an ear-
lier online version of the story I wrote about George’s indictment the previous Friday by a Fort Bend County grand jury on two counts of money laundering, a third-degree felony. That, of course, was a single story, and there was a lot more that went into the newspaper, including my late-night coverage of a Fort Bend ISD board meeting. But, thankfully, I was able to complete the final touches to the paper and get it out the door on Tuesday morning. That afternoon, I went to the Fort Bend County Courthouse in Richmond for that day’s Commissioners Court meeting, the first since the news of George’s indictment broke. I usually watch these twicemonthly meetings online, but it seemed particularly important to go to this one in person, the better to get a sense of the dynamics in the room. As I walked into the building, I found a scrum of television reporters and cameras in the first-floor atrium, with George accompanied by his new attorneys, Jared Woodfill and Terry Yates. George had previously issued his own written statement addressing the new charges against him, but the attorneys provided a much more extensive response. I hadn’t previously
known about the press conference, and luckily arrived just as it was about to begin. It’s important to note that the statements given by the attorneys were not made in the course of a court proceeding. I’ve covered courts on and off since the very beginning of my journalism career, and I’ve long since learned that statements like these should be taken with at least a few grains of salt. Woodfill – who, interestingly, served for many years as the chairman of the Harris County Republican Party – asserted that the new charges were the result of a political division between George and a “faction” of his fellow members of the Fort Bend County Democratic Party. Pressed by reporters for reasons behind that division, Woodfill mentioned a vote on a redistricting issue and George’s refusal to offer a job to a person connected to another officeholder. More light may be shown on these allegations in due course, but since they are at present unsubstantiated, I’ll not elaborate on them here. By this time, Fred Taylor, the current chair of the Fort Bend County Democratic Party, had already called on George to resign from his office, saying that the new charges demonstrated
Fort Bend County Judge KP George now faces multiple criminal charges. File photo
that he did not have the sufficient “character” to hold his role. On Monday, Precinct 4 Commissioner Dexter McCoy, also a Democrat, last Tuesday went further than he had previously and called on George to resign. He added that he and George have not been on speaking terms for quite some time, at least since George was first indicted last fall on a misdemeanor charge of misrepresentation of identity by a political candidate. That charge stems from George’s alleged involvement in a purported “fake hate” social media scheme undertaken by his former chief of staff, Taral Patel. McCoy joins Republican
SEE JUDGE PAGE 7
FBISD BOARD APPROVES GENDER POLICY By Ken Fountain
KFOUNTAIN@FORTBENDSTAR.COM
After hearing from more than 30 people in opposition, the Fort Bend ISD board on Monday passed a new policy on how the district will deal with a host of gender issues, including the use by students of pronouns, the use of bathrooms and playing of sports by gender conforming students, and whether employees should notify parents that their students wish to identify with a gender other than the one assigned to them at birth. The policy, which had been discussed for the first time at last week’s agenda review meeting, was the district’s latest foray into a set of hot-button culture-war issues that have embroiled other districts in the region in controversy. The policy as written also includes language stating that there are only two biological sexes, male and female, and that the district will not introduce students in classrooms or elsewhere that would indicate otherwise. Certain exceptions allow for accommodating nonconforming students to use single-use restrooms. According to proponents, the measure, called “Parental Rights and Responsibilities,” merely moves practices that had already been in place at the district’s administrative procedures level into policy, making them more transparent to district employees and the public. During the public comment portion of the meeting. more than 40 people had signed up to speak, the majority of them on the gender f luidity policy. Thirty-two people spoke, often in very emotional terms, about the harms they perceive the policy having, including an increase in bullying and social ostracism that could lead to self-harming behavior and alienation from families. Speakers were limited to one minute because of the large number. Darcey Pett, a Fort Bend ISD elementary school teacher and the parent of a nonbinary stu-
dent in the district, said that she and other teachers, as “mandated reporters” under state law, are trained to look for signs of distress, self-harm, or bullying. “If a student’s behavior are tied to those risks but teachers are restricted from discussing gender, how can they fully support mental health?” Pett asked. “What guidance will be provided for counselors who are trained to provide confidential support?” Dustin Rhodes, a Hightower High School sophomore and the founder of a LGTBQ “safe space” on that campus, said, “I am here to tell you that if this board to enact the hateful, discriminatory, and factually inaccurate gender policies that have been proposed, you threaten the lives of my friends. If the precedent set today is that our schools are not safe for gender nonconforming students, then blood will be on your hands.” One student, who identified as gay, said that he did not tell his family why he chose to attend the meeting because if they learned that he was gay, he would be kicked out of his house. He returned to his seat to the cheers of many in the audience. Only three people spoke in favor of the policy, all of them public figures: Cheryl Buford, one of three candidates vying for the seat of outgoing Position 7 trustee David Hamilton; Pastor Carlos Jones, president of the Fort Bend Pastors Association; and Missouri City Councilmember Monica Riley. “Since when did our schools become a battleground and a breeding ground for issues of sexism?” Jones asked. “Why are our children being the target of an oversexualized agenda? Who would have thought that a two-minute experience to the restroom would then make it to the Fort Bend ISD boardroom as a symbolizing moment of identity?” When, after a couple of hours relating to other items, the policy came up for a vote near the end of the meeting. While Position 5 Trustee Sonya Jones
Darcey Pett, a Fort Bend ISD teacher and parent of a nonbinary student, at podium, speaks to the district’s board in opposition to a proposed gender fluidity policy on Monday. The board approved the policy 5-2. Photo by Ken Fountain
moved that board members be limited to two minutes of speaking time, Position 1 Trustee Angie Hanan successfully moved that they be allowed to speak for three minutes. “Promoting bias and intolerance has no place in Fort Bend ISD and does reflect our own definition of compassionate citizen,” Hanan said in a prepared statement. He referred to studies about the emotional harms suffered by many nonconforming students, including the risk of suicide. She said the “subjectivity” of the language in the policy regarding gender fluidity would create “confusion” among district employees on curricula and how to provide support to students. She said she had reluctantly approved the existing procedures in 2023 because she felt they were less restrictive than the policy that had been passed earlier by Katy ISD, to great controversy. “Unfortunately, here we are here now with a policy that seems even more restrictive than Katy’s.” Position 4 trustee Shirly Rose-Gilliam, a career educator, said, “I know what we do every day as educators. We educate children.” Rose-Gilliam said that whether the policy passed, she trusted that the district’s principles and other personnel would continue to act compassionately in the best interests of all of its students. She asked that the board members allow them to do that. “Transgender students are
not pawns of political games, nor should they be subjected to bullying masquerading as policy,” she said. “Implementation is key.” Hamilton said the discussion was being framed solely around protecting the rights of nonconforming students in such aspects as the use of restrooms, but that the rights of all students and their parents also should be respected. “There is a pathway for us to accommodate the needs of a student who identifies as something other than their biological sex,” he said. He added that similar concerns were at play with respect to student athletes. “We should not be in the business of doing things with students that go against the desires of the parents,” he said. Position 3 trustee Rick Garcia said that as a parent, he would want to know about whatever issues his children were facing at school so that he could provide support to them. He said he felt the policy allows for that to happen, giving parents the primary authority over their children’s upbringing. That point was echoed by board president Kristin Tassin, who said the district, as a governmental entity, can not impose its own agenda over that of parents, whether someone agrees with how a particular household parents its children. When it came to a vote, the policy passed 5-2, with Hanan and Rose- Gilliam voting against.