D-FW's Economy Is Slowing, But Home Sales Are Speeding Up
With fewer houses on the market, the time it takes it to sell a house in North Texas has shrunk. In June, homes up for sale in the Dallas-Fort Worth area took a median of just 47.5 days to sell, according to Realtor.com. That’s almost a third less time on the market than nationwide, where the median time to sell a house last month was 72 days.
And while time on the market in the U.S. is up 25% from a year ago, D-FW’s sale time is down compared with before the pandemic, when it took more than 60 days to sell a house.
So what’s happening? With fewer houses available to purchase and mortgage rates near a record low, buyers are moving faster to make a deal.
“Our June data reinforces that buyers are out in force and serious about finding a home,” Danielle Hale, Realtor.com chief economist, said in the latest report. “Although the new listings trend has improved, inventory continues to decline, indicating that what is coming onto the market is selling. The housing market has certainly demonstrated its resilience during the COVID pandemic, but conditions vary market by market,” she said. “In particular, the nation’s largest metros are seeing a better new listings trend and smaller increase in the time it takes for a home to sell, which could signal they may lead the recovery.”
At $356,300, the median home asking price in the D-FW area in June was 1% lower than a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.
With many sellers still on the sidelines because of COVID-19, the number of listings with real estate agents in North Texas is down almost 30% from where it was a year ago. And new listings — which show the flow of new properties to the market — are 15% lower than in 2019.
“The drop in days on market is further proof that demand is outpacing supply,” said Paige Shipp, a housing analyst with CDCG Asset Management. “With historically low mortgage rates and an increased desire for a single-family detached home, I’m not surprised homes are selling faster.”
After gains early in the year, sales of preowned single-family homes in North Texas fell by double-digit percentage rates in April and May as the pandemic took hold. Through the first five months of 2020, total property sales in the area are down 6% from the same period last year.
An increase in pending transactions suggests that the local home market is rebounding. The home market performance is much more positive than the Dallas-Fort Worth job market, which has seen a loss of more than 220,000 jobs during the year ending May due to the pandemic.
The time it takes to sell a house in all of Texas’ major metros is well below the national median days on market. In the D-FW area, homes are selling the fastest, followed by Austin at 49 days. Houston properties on Realtor.com sell at 57.5 days median days on market. In San Antonio, it takes the longest — 64.5 days. “You can find signs of some very heated markets with very low inventory but high buyer demand,” said Chris Kelly, CEO of Dallas’ Ebby Halliday Realtors. “Across Texas, showings remain up 10% over 2019 averages at this same time of year and are up 85.4% since the lowest point on March 31st...”
