Great article by Steve Brown in the Dallas Morning News today. DFW is a great area to buy in and to live in. 2008 is the year people are going to say I wished I'd have bought Real Estate in Dallas Fort Worth!!! Don't be one of those people. If you know anyone looking to buy or sell in this area let me know!!!
Dallas-Fort Worth avoids U.S. housing glut Number of pre-owned properties for sale rises a bit; median prices slip Friday, April 4, 2008 By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News stevebrown@dallasnews.com
The glut of homes for sale across the country is near a 20-year high. But in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the number of pre-owned houses on the market hasn't increased significantly in the last two years. At the end of February, about 43,000 homes were for sale in the Realtors' multiple listing service. That's up only about 2,000 listings from February 2006. And while there is almost an 11-month supply of homes on the market nationwide, in the D-FW area, the inventory of houses has stayed close to a six-month supply for the last four years. One reason we haven't seen big declines in prices here is our inventory levels are much tighter in Texas than they are in the national average, said D'Ann Petersen, a business economist with the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. There is a 30-month supply of homes on the market in parts of Florida," she said. We've seen some downward pressure on prices here, but not as much as the U.S. During the first two months of 2008, median home prices in North Texas fell 2 percent to $138,000, according to the latest statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. That's down from a peak of about $155,000 last August. For all of 2007, median home sales prices here were up a scant 1 percent. Total pre-owned home sales were down about 8 percent last year in North Texas, ending a string of record sales totals. Housing analysts and real estate agents say the relatively stable pre-owned home inventories have bolstered residential values in the area. It's up a few thousand, but it's not double or anything like what we are seeing in Phoenix, California or Florida, said Barry Hoffer, a sales agent with Ebby Halliday Realtors. "In certain neighborhoods, there is a shortage of homes on the market. Mr. Hoffer said he's been trying without luck to find listings in one residential pocket near Arapaho Road in Far North Dallas. We have clients looking, and there is nothing to show them,he said. We are writing letters to homeowners in the neighborhood saying. 'We have buyers, would you consider selling? He is quick to acknowledge that isn't the story in many local residential districts. In certain neighborhoods in Frisco, high-dollar homes are stacking up, Mr. Hoffer said. A closer look at listings shows that the number of properties on the market has risen significantly in some neighborhoods this year, while listings fell in others. North Dallas and the Park Cities – which have so far seemed bullet-proof to the housing downturn – both saw a 28 percent jump in home listings during the first two months of 2008 compared with the same period of 2007. And listings this year are up 16 percent in Sunnyvale and 12 percent in McKinney. Longtime Dallas real estate agent Virginia Cook said market conditions are still good in Dallas exclusive Preston Hollow neighborhood. But in the adjoining Park Cities, there are a large number of high-end properties for sale, she said. There are 150 houses over $1 million in the Park Cities area, and they are not moving as swiftly, Ms. Cook said. There are some speculative houses that are $15 million. There is one of them that has been on the market for two or 2 ½ years; she said. They had hoped to sell it during construction time, and that didn't work. The Park Cities – in large part due to the price of the houses there – have one of the longest average sales times in North Texas. During the first two months of this year, on average it took 103 days to sell a house in the Park Cities. That compares with about 87 days areawide. Overall sales times are up only about a week at the end of February compared with a year earlier. While the number of homes on the market in North Texas is by most measures considered reasonable, there are potential problem areas. It is unclear how many of the more than 19,000 homes foreclosed on in the Dallas-Fort Worth area last year are still on the market. Ms. Petersen said foreclosures here are one of the Dallas Fed's biggest concerns. We haven't seen that erosion in value here that we have in other areas, she said. Also, there are almost 10,000 unsold new houses on the market in North Texas. Some analysts have said builder price cuts on these properties have been a significant drag on the pre-owned home market. The bottom part of the market is pretty overbuilt right now, Ms. Petersen said. So we have seen some pretty heavy discounts on those as builders try to get that inventory down.