Dallas

Cooling Reported in North Texas Real Estate Market

Sales are slower in some areas while others remain hot

The real estate market is cooling in parts of North Texas according to realtors and experts.

Two nice houses side-by-side in Frisco are an example according to, Ebby Halliday Realtor Brian Johnson.

One he sold in May 2017 for over the asking price.

“We listed for $309,000. In 3 days I had 17 offers. We sold it for 335,” he said.

The one next door has been on the market 49 days. It has hardwood floors, an updated kitchen and master bath.

“This home has over 600 square feet more and its way more updated and I’ve got no offers,” Johnson said. “Now we just dropped the price 10 thousand and I do have someone interested.”

That situation has not been the case with similar listings the past few years in Frisco with the flood of relocations like thousands of people coming from California for Toyota’s new North American headquarters nearby in Plano.

“It’s definitely cooling down,” Johnson said. “It’s turning more into a buyer’s market.”

Factors include rising interest rates, a larger inventory of houses for sale and some buyers priced out of the market by soaring price increases the past few years, according to expert Paige Shipp with the real estate research company Metrostudy.

“I’m very cautious about calling it a slow down because we’re going from having 10 offers to having 3 offers, right? It’s not nearly as competitive and we are starting to see some price reductions,” she said.

Some parts of North Texas still have a very low inventory of houses on the market and very high demand including Southern Dallas and Oak Cliff.

“The Frisco Market is going to be completely different than what is happening here,” said Algernon Herron, CEO of Keller-Williams Galloway-Herron. “The more affordable housing is still very much on this side of town.”

Lower priced homes are still in short supply with strong demand.

His agency has a new listing in the Glen Oaks neighborhood of Oak Cliff that went on the market two days ago, listed at $250,000. He said the house is likely to attract multiple offers by this weekend.

“Right now we have so many people looking for this particular price point and so few houses available, it takes the price up. And so this one probably will sell at even more than list price,” he said.

Shipp said some new communities on the edges of North Texas are adding inventory and easing the price pressure for homes under $300,000 include Heartland in Crandall.

“We’re starting to see really new communities and new product, that’s priced, what I call the new affordable,” she said.

In 2006, Shipp said 65% of new North Texas homes were priced under $200,000. Now just 3% are that low.

Herron said there is very little new construction under $300,000 in Dallas so buyers are limited to existing homes.

“The inventory is so low in that price point, it has allowed sellers to really do well,” he said.

A new report from the US Commerce Department Wednesday put nationwide home sales down 5.3% for June 2018 compared with last year with prices also down slightly.

Another report earlier in July had overall North Texas home sales down by 3% in June but still up 1% for the first 6 months of 2018 compared with 2017.

The DFW real estate professionals interviewed by NBC 5 are not worried about the North Texas Market, yet.

Normal North Texas market conditions could bring more traditional annual value increases of around 3 percent, less than recent years where value has increased approximately 10 percent in some area.

“And for the long term health of the market, it’s really important to get more stabilized and more normalized,” Shipp said.

It also eases the market for buyers who might not have to compete with so many offers and over the asking price deals.

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