North Texas Home Prices Up, Number of Sales Down
Prices on existing North Texas single-family homes were up in February, but sales were down for the ninth consecutive month.
Just over 3,500 homes were sold in the 29-county North Texas region last month, a 17 percent drop from February 2010, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported yesterday.
Sales declines of more than 50 percent were seen in some areas of Arlington and Fort Worth. In Tarrant County, the submarkets of Kennedale, central west Fort Worth near Texas Christian University, and Haltom City saw gains.
A total of 6,676 homes have been sold in North Texas so far this year. That’s 13 percent fewer than the same period a year ago.
The median sales price was up 4 percent to $145,000 last month. Nearly 25 percent of the homes sold cost between $200,000 and $400,000. About 1 percent cost $1 million or more.
Source: Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Read MoreDallas-Fort Worth pre-owned home sales climb 18%
North Texas home sales jumped 18 percent in May, the third month in a row of double-digit annual gains.
Local real estate agents sold 7,119 pre-owned single-family homes last month, the highest monthly total so far this year. Through the first five months of 2010, sales of homes through real estate agents’ Multiple Listing Service are up 12 percent over the same period last year, the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems said Monday.
May home sales got a boost from the federal tax credit that provided up to $8,000 to homebuyers who had a house under contract by the end of April. Now that the federal tax credit has expired, most analysts anticipate residential sales will cool off.
Indeed, pending home sales are down 23 percent in North Texas, indicating a slower sales pace ahead.
“There may be a few more tax credit sales that will close in June, but the impact will likely be less than the previous two months,” said David Brown, who heads the Dallas office of housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. “We have seen new contracts have slowed in markets across the country with the expiration of the tax credit.”
The median pre-owned home sales price last month was $151,980, up 2 percent from a year earlier. The number of homes on the market last month was down 2 percent from a year earlier, according to the latest MLS reports.
In May, there was a 6.6-month supply of pre-owned single-family homes listed for sale in North Texas. A six-month inventory is considered a balanced market.
Any significant year-over-year declines in home sales probably won’t show up until fall, since that’s when the federal tax credits first began to boost home sales in 2009.
“Expect September, October and especially November numbers to look really bad by comparison to last year’s when the credit was in full force for first-time buyers,” said James Gaines, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “Ironically, mortgage rates under 5 percent don’t seem to be making much difference, except that we don’t know how bad the market might look if rates were, say, around 8 percent instead.”
Homebuilders said new-home sales began to slow in early May after the tax credits expired, said Ted Wilson of Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies Inc.
“Builders remain hopeful that the job growth seen so far this year keeps coming and that sales continue their modest recovery in the second half of the year,” he said.
Source: The Dallas Morning News
Read MoreDallas-Fort Worth home sales rise 11 percent
The North Texas home market took a turn for the better in March. Sales of pre-owned homes rose 11 percent from March 2009. And condo sales soared by more than 30 percent.
Even more encouraging for the market, median home sales prices increased by 6 percent from a year ago.
The upbeat home market data may signal that the worst of the local housing market downturn is in the rearview mirror. But analysts and economists stress that the spike in sales is partly due to a federal tax credit for homebuyers, which expires at the end of April. That temporary incentive could have artificially inflated sales.
“Certainly, the expanded tax credit … has been an incentive to buy now,” said Dr. Bernard Weinstein, a Southern Methodist University economist. “We may see lower sales in the second quarter as buyers have shifted typical spring buying.”
Analysts also point out that the March results are being compared with a period a year ago when housing was at its lowest point. So, the gains are from a low base.
Real estate agents sold 6,036 pre-owned single-family homes in March, according to the latest statistics from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. It was the strongest single month for sales since last October.
The median price of pre-owned homes sold last month was $144,900. That’s the best price since last summer.
And in one peek at the future, the report indicates that the surge is likely to continue, at least for the short term. Pending pre-owned home sales in the North Texas market – which includes 24 counties – were up 22 percent at the end of March.
Mortgage rates
Some buyers included in the March data may have signed home purchase contracts in late January and February because of worries that mortgage rates would rise soon.
Indeed, mortgage rates this week averaged about 5.2 percent nationwide, the highest level in eight months.
“Many people expect to see interest rates increase now that the federal government has ended its program of purchasing mortgage-backed securities,” said David Brown, who heads the Dallas office of housing analyst Metrostudy Inc. “Buyers and agents realize this may be as low as we see interest rates for a while.
“Some of the buyers who will close home purchases this month and next likely accelerated their purchase decision to qualify for the tax credit. The outlook for sales in the second half of the year is less certain.”
The median price of pre-owned homes sold last month was $144,900, the best price since last summer.
Some of the biggest year-over-year sales jumps in March were in affluent neighborhoods in the Park Cities, North Dallas and Westlake. Buyers in these areas usually don’t qualify for homebuying tax credits.
“A year ago, those high-end buyers were running for the hills,” Brown said. “Some of the buyers are now viewing this long term as a great investment and jumped out there to buy.”
Conversely, some more affordably priced areas such as Lancaster and Duncanville saw sharp annual declines in sales last month.
With March’s strong home sales numbers, year-to-date prices are up 3 percent from the first quarter of 2009 and total sales are up a scant 1 percent.
No flood of sellers
So far, the improvement in home activity hasn’t prompted more sellers to enter the market. Last month, 36,730 pre-owned single-family homes were up for sale in local real estate agents’ multiple listing services, 6 percent fewer than in March 2009.
There is a 6.4-month supply of homes on the market in North Texas – close to what is considered a balanced market.
But that supply figure doesn’t include some previously foreclosed homes that aren’t being marketed through the multiple listing service.
About 23 percent of Dallas-Fort Worth residential sales are from foreclosed properties sold by lenders or from distress sales, another report out Thursday says.
While that may seem high, it’s among the lowest among the 25 largest U.S. housing markets studied by First American CoreLogic in January. Among the highest were Riverside, Calif., where 62 percent of home sales were from foreclosures or distressed sales, followed by Las Vegas at 59 percent, and Sacramento, Calif., at 58 percent.
Foreclosures
While Thursday’s report had positive signs, Dallas-Fort Worth continues to see record home foreclosures. And more than 6 percent of mortgage holders in the area are seriously late in making payments.
At the same time, residents who feel better about economic conditions and are secure in their jobs are still in the market to buy and take advantage of lower home prices and finance rates, real estate agents say.
The increase in pre-owned home sales in March was in contrast to D-FW new home sales, which were down 20 percent from the first quarter of 2009.
But the new home market makes up a small share of overall sales.
Fewer than 3,600 vacant new houses were on the market this year – about a tenth of the number of pre-owned homes up for sale.
“Certainly another objective of the tax credit has been to help mop up foreclosures, and the absorption of this shadow inventory goes a long way to adding stability to the market,” said Ted Wilson with Dallas’ Residential Strategies Inc.
Recent forecasts that North Texas’ economy will add between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs this year also give analysts hope that the housing turnaround here will last.
“Ultimately, the job market will need to improve for the home sales to experience sustained growth,” Brown said.
D-FW AREA HOME RESALES UPDATE
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Source: DallasNews.com
Read MoreDallas Home Sales Rise
Texas had an overal decline of 10.4% in home sales over 2007, but Dallas has seen an increase:
• 4,043 homes sold (3.2 percent increase)
• Median price of $153,300 (3.5 percent decrease)
• 6.4-month inventory
NORTH TEXAS HOME SALES RISE, DECLINE
While neighborhoods with large numbers of expensive homes and low foreclosure rates posted a general increase in home prices last year, many areas dominated by low- and moderate-priced housing and high foreclosures had price declines.
According to statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, most of the neighborhoods that saw median home sales price declines last year are in the southern and far eastern sections of the city.
The biggest price gains were in north Dallas, up 18 percent in 2007 from 2006, and the Park Cities, up 13 percent.
Homes costing $1 million or more sold well in 2007, with a 16 percent increase areawide. Sales of moderate- and low-priced houses were down.
North Texas had an overall 8 percent decline in sales of preowned homes last year. Sales dropped in all but five of the markets tracked by Dallas Morning News.
Source: Dallas Morning News
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