Like many markets around the country, the Houston Real Estate market is feeling the effects of the economic downturn, foreclosures and an increase in unemployment. March was no different as the Houston real estate market continued to experience a decline in both home sales and median prices.

Houston saw a total of 4,355 sales of single-family homes (SFH) in March. This is down a significant 16.1 percent from March of last year and is continuing a sales decline that the Houston real estate market has been experiencing for more than a year and a half according to the Houston Association of REALTORS®.

The median sales price of SFH in Houston was $145,000. This was down 4.4 percent from March 2008, and equal to the levels set last December. This is especially notable when compared to the national median price of $164,600 according to the National Association of REALTORS®.

The biggest factor of the previously mentioned playing havoc on the Houston real estate market might just well be foreclosures. While sales of foreclosed properties, which usually sell at extremely discounted prices, made up a smaller percentage of overall sales in the month of March, they were still almost 25 percent of the overall sales.

This is especially significant when you see the overall sale numbers fell by nearly 19 percent compared with March of 2008.

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