Dallas Real Estate on the Rebound

“It appears we are at the bottom of the housing market in most Texas cities,” said Real Estate Center Director Mark Dotzour after reviewing the state’s latest home sale numbers.

Dotzour mentioned two years ago that new home construction needed to fall dramatically to avoid the level of overbuilding that could damage Texas housing markets. He even predicted summer 2009 as the bottom of the housing cycle.

Apparently he was right on all counts. The Texas inventory of unsold new and existing homes is in good shape.

“I feel now is the time to buy a house in most Texas cities,” he said. “Housing affordability has never been higher, and I never thought I would see 5 percent mortgages in my lifetime. If you plan to live in the house for at least two or three years, now is the time to buy.

Dotzour said mortgage rates should remain low as long as the federal government continues to purchase almost all residential mortgages. When they stop, rates will move up.

In the DFW area, home sales were essentially flat in the second quarter following a long period of declines, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR).

The second-quarter survey indicated that North Texas experienced a 0.2 percent decrease from a year earlier in the median price of homes. Nationwide, median prices fell by 15.6 percent.
DFW's second-quarter drop represented the smallest in over a year, welcome news after a nearly 5 percent drop in the first quarter.

The NAR report has supported recent housing data pointing to a flattening of the North Texas home market.

"We are beginning to see some more positive trends in the housing market, which is great news," said David Brown, head of the Dallas Metrostudy office. "Although it is a short trend, both the new home and resale closings during the last quarter suggest the market is bottoming out in sales volume."

Sources: Real Estate Center at Texas A&M, Dallas Morning News, National Association of REALTORS