Austin and Fort Worth Top Dallas in Home Price Gains
Dallas-area prices were 2.7% higher in September.
Dallas-area home prices rose modestly in September, but the bigger gains were in Fort Worth and Austin. Home prices in the Dallas area were 2.7% higher than in September 2018. That’s a smaller increase than the nationwide gain, according to the latest report from CoreLogic. “All 50 states posted positive home price trends in September, with the average price nationally rising 3.5%,” Frank Martell, president and CEO of CoreLogic, said in the report.
Three Texas markets had higher annual home price increases in September. Austin home prices were 4.85% higher than a year ago, and they were 3.5% higher in San Antonio. Fort Worth’s home prices were up 3.3% from September 2018 levels.
North Texas home price increases have slowed in 2019 after several years of much larger gains. Through the first nine months of the year, median single-family home sales prices in the area are 2% higher than for the same period in 2018.
CoreLogic is forecasting that nationwide home prices will rise 5.6% in the year ahead. Home sales have been buoyed in recent months by lower mortgage rates and more young buyers coming into the housing market.
“Mortgage rates were a full percentage point lower this September compared to a year ago, boosting affordability for first-time buyers and supporting a rise in homeownership,” said Frank Nothaft, chief economist at CoreLogic. “In addition to lower interest rates, personal income grew faster than home prices during the past year. “This provided an additional lift for first-time buyer affordability and helped to boost the homeownership rate to the highest level in more than five years...”
