Most Dallas Neighborhoods Are Experiencing a Home Sales Slump
The new color for this spring's housing market map is red, as more and more Dallas-area neighborhoods show declines in purchases from a year ago and lower overall sales prices. The shift in the North Texas home market started last summer and has continued into 2019.
Almost 70% of residential areas tracked by The Dallas Morning News saw a drop in home sales in the first three months of 2019 compared to the same period a year ago.
And almost a dozen of the areas had declines in median sales prices for the houses sold by local real estate agents. The biggest year-over-year price declines were in East Dallas, Far North Dallas, Northwest Dallas and Irving — all with prices 8% below where they were a year ago, according to data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. Total home sales in the almost four dozen residential areas The Newsfollows each quarter are down about 6% from first quarter 2018 levels. More neighborhoods saw first quarter declines in home purchases than in any year since 2009 — during the worst of the Great Recession.
But housing analysts don't see a similar housing shakeout in the works for North Texas. "A crash would involve a loss of jobs, incomes going down and foreclosures," said James Gaines, Real Estate Center chief economist. "We are not doing a 2007, 2008 or 2009 crash again." Gaines said Dallas-area home sales would be higher if there were more affordable houses on the market. More than 40% of buyers in Texas are renters looking to purchase a home.
"There is some price fatigue," he said. "Buyers are looking at what they are being asked to pay and they are backing off somewhat...
