D-FW Builders Start More Homes Than in Any U.S. Market
Dallas-Fort Worth is hanging onto its position as the top homebuilding market in the country. The D-FW area topped Houston, central Florida and Phoenix in a ranking of the busiest U.S. homebuilding metro areas by Metrostudy Inc.
North Texas has led the nation in homebuilding for the last three years. "D-FW remains in the top position in spite of annual starts declining for the first time since first-quarter 2012," said Paige Shipp, who heads Metrostudy's Dallas office. "Interestingly, many of the other regions' starts, including Houston, are either generally flat or down."
D-FW home starts at midyear were at an annualized rate of 33,104 homes — down 5.4% from a year ago. Houston's 29,222 home starts put it in second place. The Austin area also made the list with 16,404 starts, and San Antonio ranked 10th with 12,502 houses started by builders.
"I think home starts for Dallas-Fort Worth will probably land in the 33,000 to 35,000 range," Shipp said. "Most builders are pretty content with sales and are feeling better going into the second half of this year. "It helps that we have added 120,000 jobs over the last 12 months."
North Texas housing starts are still almost 40% below where they were before the Great Recession. A shortage of building sector labor, high construction costs and increasing affordability issues have held down new homebuilding levels during this cycle...
