D-FW Was the Busiest Texas Market for Second-Quarter Home Sales
Dallas-Fort Worth topped the state in home sales during the second quarter of 2020. But home purchases were down in the D-FW area and statewide because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Real estate agents sold more than 26,000 North Texas homes during the second quarter, an 11.5% drop from the same period last year, according to the latest data from the Texas Realtors association. Statewide home sales were almost 10% lower than in second-quarter 2019.
“With COVID-19 and the mandatory shutdown, the Texas housing market performed as expected in the second quarter,” James Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said in the new report. “However, in June we saw demand pick up, with buyers becoming more active and taking advantage of the low interest rates.”
North Texas home sales by real estate agents were 16% higher in June than a year earlier, after two months of declines. “The housing market is one of the few segments of the economy that has held strong,” Gaines said. “Barring another shutdown, we anticipate it to perform reasonably well in the third quarter.”
Among the major Texas markets, the biggest second-quarter sales decline was in the Houston area, where home purchases fell more than 22% year over year. Home sales handled by real estate agents were only 4.6% lower than a year ago in the San Antonio area.
Even with the pandemic, home sales prices continued to rise in all of Texas’ major metro areas. The largest year-over-year price gain was in San Antonio, which was up 4.3% from second-quarter 2019. D-FW median home sales prices were 2.3% higher than a year earlier, according to the Texas Realtors. The number of homes on the market was down sharply statewide. The biggest decline was in the Austin area, where there were more than 32% fewer houses listed for sale with Realtors at midyear compared with June 2019.
“We have a tighter market compared to last year, causing prices to remain high,” Gaines said. Gaines warns that the June jump in home sales in many Texas markets may be a limited rebound. “June housing activity recovered substantial pent-up demand from the economic shutdown,” he said. “This positive momentum, however, may be temporary as new coronavirus cases have accelerated in recent weeks...”
