Dive Brief:

• The Houston Association of Realtors broke some news this week that many in the housing industry were expecting to hear months ago: The nosedive in oil prices has finally started eroding home sales.

• Residential sales in the "Energy Capital of the World" dipped by 5.8% in February when compared with February 2014, the association said. This marks the first sales decline in six months. The Realtors placed the blame squarely on falling oil prices, which have led to widespread layoffs and caused many former oilfield employees to back out of contracts.

• At the same time, the city’s housing inventory has tightened, which has contributed to rising home prices and insufficient supply to meet buyer demand.

Dive Insight:

The HAR’s monthly report, however, stopped short of calling the downward housing spiral a “crash.” In fact, the former chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors, Shad Bogany, told online news site CultureMap Houston that he sees plenty of demand for homes and expects the slim inventory on the market to sell well this spring.

Houston had a 2.7-month supply of for-sale housing in February, the HAR estimated. Coming out of the recession in 2010, the city had 6.3 months’ worth of inventory ready to sell.