Dallas Single family homes market has tightened. Are we finally at bottom and ready to rise?
This article is from today’s Dallas Morning News online. This may prove to be encouraging news for texas home buyers, realtors and texas property investors.
Number of Dallas-area single-family homes for sale falls 15 percent
12:05 AM CDT on Friday, October 17, 2008
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
And now for some good news about the local housing market: There are fewer properties for sale. The number of single-family homes on the market in Dallas-area multiple listing services is down about 15 percent from a year ago.In some areas, the decline is even steeper. At the end of September, the number of homes listed for sale with Realtors was off more than 30 percent from a year earlier in neighborhoods in DeSoto, Lancaster, southeast Dallas, southern Dallas and Wylie, according to statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information System and Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center.
However, listings are up substantially in North Dallas, the Park Cities and Southlake.
Whether that means sellers in many areas have just thrown up their hands or that properties are being sold at auction, it’s good news that the supply of homes for sale in multiple listing services is falling. That’s usually one of the first signs that the market is near the bottom or turning.
“Decline in inventory is very good for our local real estate market,” said Jim Fite, president of Century 21 Judge Fite Realtors.
He said that the local home market is becoming more balanced, with just over six months of home inventory for sale.
And Mr. Fite predicts, “The Dallas-Fort Worth market has stabilized where we will not see declines in the double digits as we have year-to-date through August.”
September’s 2 percent gain in pre-owned home sales in North Texas was the first such increase in almost two years.
Of course, things still have a way to go in the local housing market.
Through the first nine months of the year, sales totals were higher in only a handful of the almost 50 residential areas that The Dallas Morning News tracks.
And prices were off in just over half the neighborhoods. The sharpest home price declines were in southern suburbs.
Texas A&M University Real Estate Center economist James Gaines said sellers recognized that the housing market has fundamentally changed.
“The really good news is that sellers seem to be getting the idea that their properties are not going up in value as rapidly as before and that the market pendulum has swung back in favor of qualified buyers,” Dr. Gaines said.
“So to sell, you have to be reasonable in pricing or, as many are doing, not sell at all and see if you can wait out the market to get a better price later.”
Dr. Gaines said he’s watching carefully to see how the global financial meltdown affects home sales in Texas. He’s expecting the usual seasonal slowdown in home purchases during the next few months.
“Next year won’t be a particularly good year either, but the declines won’t look as bad because we’ll be measuring from lower levels from this year,” he said. “I think the key for the next 12-plus months is going to be the general economy and financial markets.”
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