Dallas-Fort Worth Home Sales drop 30 Percent in October

Star-Telegram

Existing home sales in North Texas plummeted 30 percent in October, a drop that market economists expected.

In the 29-county North Texas region, 4,413 homes were sold last month, according to the latest report from Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center.

It was the fifth straight month of declines compared with figures from a year earlier. Sales for the first 10 months were down 5 percent, the report said.

Only two Tarrant County submarkets saw increases in sales in October, and two remained unchanged.

The central west area of Fort Worth saw sales climb 24 percent from a year earlier, and Colleyville had a 19 percent increase. Sales in Kennedale and Southlake were the same as last year.

The largest decline in sales, 60 percent, was in northeast Arlington.

Sales of condos and townhomes in downtown Fort Worth were up 500 percent, with six sales. In the third quarter, buyers were paying 96 percent of the listing price on downtown condos and townhomes, according to a Downtown Fort Worth Inc. residential report.

Economists had expected the numbers to be way down in October and again in November, because home sales spiked this time last year when the first round of first-time home buyer federal tax credits were issued. Sales of homes bought using a tax credit needed to be closed by Sept. 30.

The median sales price in October was $146,000, a 3 percent increase from a year ago. The median sales price for this year is $147,000, a 1 percent increase.

Dallas-Fort Worth Home Sales, Prices Rise

Ft. Worth Star-Telegram

After three months of declines, homes sales in North Texas were up 11 percent in March, according to the Texas A&M Real Estate Center.

Moreover, the median home price rose 6 percent, the largest increase in several months, the figures show.

Locally, Kennedale and central area Fort Worth apartments saw big sales increases of 100 percent and 107 percent, respectively. Those cities were followed closely by Euless, Hurst and Trophy Club/Westlake, all with sales increases of more than 50 percent.

Texas A&M compiles numbers from a 24-county North Texas region for its report.

In March, 6,036 homes were sold in the region. Sales last increased in November, when they jumped 31 percent on the strength of a surge of people returning to the market to take advantage of low interest rates as well as the first-time homebuyer tax credit. Sales numbers then fell in December, January and February.

The median sales price in March was $144,900, a 6 percent increase from a year ago. Median sales prices had only been increasing about 1 percent for the past few months.

Year-to-date, 13,466 homes have sold in the region, a 1 percent increase from the same period a year ago.

April sales numbers are also expected to be high as the second round of the tax credit expires at month’s end.

Dallas-Forth Worth Home Prices up by 3 Percent

The Dallas News

Dallas-area home prices moved solidly higher in the latest measure of the country's housing market.

Dallas' December home prices increased by 3 percent from a year earlier in the monthly Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

It was the second month in a row that area home prices rose on an annual basis. Prices were up 1.4 percent in November's Case-Shiller Dallas report – the first such gain in more than two years.

Overall prices fell by 3.1 percent in the 20 cities Case-Shiller tracks, indicating that much of the rest of the country still faces home market challenges.

"As measured by prices, the housing market is definitely in better shape than it was this time last year, as the pace of deterioration has stabilized for now," S&P's David Blitzer said in the report. "However, the rate of improvement seen during the summer of 2009 has not been sustained."

More than a dozen of the major U.S. housing markets had a year over year decline in home prices at the end of 2009, Case-Shiller found.

The biggest price drops were in Las Vegas, -20.6 percent, and Tampa, -11 percent.

San Francisco had the largest annual price gain in December – 4.8 percent – followed by Dallas and San Diego's 2.7 percent increase.

Case-Shiller tracks the prices of typical single-family homes located in each metropolitan area. The index does not include condominiums and townhouses. It only covers preowned properties – no new construction.

The Case-Shiller researchers compare sales of specific properties over time.

Dallas apartments and home prices are still about 6 percent below their peak in mid 2007, according to Case-Shiller's numbers.

Local real estate statistics show that median home sales prices in North Texas were unchanged in all of 2009 from 2008 levels, according to the North Texas Real Estate Information System.

Median prices fell by 3 percent in 2008 based on prices of homes sold by Realtors through the multiple listing service.