Willis is two markets separated by about $103,000 and a lake. The 77318 side toward Lake Conroe has a median of $374,900. The 77378 side, further out and more rural, sits at $272,000.
Both take 70 days to sell, well above the metro's 64, and 77318 is carrying 10.34 months of inventory. That is a buyer's market by any measure, and on the lake side it is a long way past the six-month balance point.
Neither figure means a Willis house will not sell. It means listing here is a commitment measured in seasons rather than weeks, and that is worth knowing before you sign an agreement rather than in month five.
Willis by ZIP
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| 77318 median, Lake Conroe side | $374,900 |
| 77378 median, rural side | $272,000 |
| Months of inventory, 77318 | 10.34 |
| Months of inventory, 77378 | 8.81 |
| Days on market, both | 70 days |
| Active listings, 77318 | 543 |
Both ZIPs are well above the six-month balance point. 77318 has 543 active listings, which is a large amount of competition for a market this size.
Source: HouseCanary ZIP-level market data, July 2026. Last verified 27 July 2026.
What Actually Slows Down a Willis Sale
Septic and well outside the city limits. A great many Willis addresses are not on municipal utilities. A financed buyer's lender will want the septic inspected and often the well tested, and a failed septic inspection stops a conventional loan outright. We buy without either and we do not ask you to replace a system on your way out.
Acreage breaks the comparables. A three-bedroom on five acres off FM 1097 does not compare cleanly to anything in a subdivision, and both automated valuations and appraisers handle it badly. Low appraisals are a recognized reason financed deals collapse out here.
Lakefront is its own market. Bulkheads, boat access, waterfront setbacks and lot elevation all price independently, and there are few genuinely comparable sales in any given quarter. A retail buyer needs a lender and an appraiser to agree on a number that has little evidence behind it.
Manufactured homes and unretired titles. Common on rural Montgomery County land, and a frequent source of delay: if the home was never properly retired as personal property and attached to the land, title has to be cleared before closing. We deal with this regularly rather than treating it as a reason to walk.
The situations we see most here are inherited land and houses and weekend properties that have stopped being used.
We buy throughout Willis, including Lake Conroe north shore, Seven Coves, Corinthian Point, Point Aquarius, Willis town center, Cape Conroe, FM 1097 corridor and Shadow Bay.
Ten Months of Supply Is the Number to Weigh
Months of inventory measures competition, not value. At 10.34 months, 77318 would take the better part of a year to clear its current listings at the present rate of sale, and there are 543 of them.
Seventy days on market is the median, so half of everything takes longer, and that is before adding thirty to forty-five days for a financed buyer to close. Realistically a Willis listing is four to six months from sign to funds, assuming the first contract holds and the appraisal supports the price on a property that may have no close comparables.
Against that, 77318 returned 0.48 percent over the past twelve months. Waiting is not being paid for, and the carrying cost of six more months on a $374,900 property is not small.
In a ten-month market, the speed premium a cash offer buys is at its largest. That is the honest case for it here.
The Lakeside Premium Is Real but Slow
Over twenty years 77318 returned about 86.9 percent against 77378's 65.9. The lake has been worth roughly twenty-one percentage points over two decades, which is a genuine premium and a good reason to have owned there.
It has not made the market quicker. The lake side carries more inventory, not less, because a larger share of it is discretionary: second homes, weekend places and retirement properties that go on the market when their owners' plans change rather than when the market is strong.
Discretionary supply is what produces ten months of inventory in an area people genuinely want to live in. It is also why a seller with an actual deadline is in a weaker position here than the appreciation figures suggest.
