The Commerce Department reports new home sales were up 11-percent last month compared to May, the third straight month of positive numbers. But in Houston, last month's numbers were down, from 817 new home sales in May to 737 in June. Pattie Huey is a Houston Association of Realtors board member and says Houston has far less new home inventory than other cities.

"If you look at their months of inventory in a lot of the other states, it was into many years of inventory. In Houston, we're only looking at months of inventory on the ground in new construction. That's really a very positive thing, so you need to make sure we're comparing apples to apples. We don't have as much available to sell."

Huey says local builders slowed housing starts last fall and are just now beginning to build more new homes. Overall, new home sales in Houston are down 23 percent this year.