Houses Are Selling -- In North Texas

Home prices are still down nationally, but experts say the North Texas real estate market may have already bottomed out.

The evidence? North Texas home prices rose slightly in January instead of falling, and the number of sales rose sharply in February.

Real estate agents said it signals a turn in the North Texas real estate market.

"I think we've hit bottom," said Jeff Brand, a Flower Mound real estate agent.

Crystal Kelley, one of his clients, said her family wanted to sell their Flower Mound home to move to a larger one and take advantage of low mortgage rates available now.

"It has gone really well," she said. "We put the house on the market in mid-February and had an offer in 23 days. We were really pleased with that."

The MetroTex Association of Realtors said the number of North Texas homes sold in February rose 23 percent from a year ago. 

North Texas home sale prices also rose in January, the most recent survey available from First American CoreLogic.

The Dallas area market was up 1.54 percent.

Houston and Austin also saw price increase, but nationwide prices were still down 11.3 percent.

"We didn't see the big increase, so we haven't seen the fall in prices either," said Brand, comparing North Texas to other areas. "Sales have been down in North Texas about 20, 25 percent, so everybody's been hit, but the future looks bright."

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