Residential real estate in Dallas-Fort Worth is moving quickly and for record high prices, according to several sources, but the land they're sitting on has also increased in value.
Vacant lots are fetching high prices amid the North Texas boom.
A .36-acre residential lot in Westover Hills — the wealthy enclave community west of Downtown Fort Worth — is on the market for $899,999.
A .195-acre lot in the 1300 block of South Adams Street — near Magnolia Avenue in the up-and-coming Near Southside neighborhood of Fort Worth — is on the market for $250,000. Three years ago, the same vacant lot sold for $140,000.
"The population is growing really quickly," Northern Realty Group's Will Northern said. "There’s more jobs here, more people moving in and they’re not making any more land, so prices are naturally going to go up."
Northern researched property values as part of a recent presentation about the rapid growth in the Near Southside and surrounding neighborhoods and found that the median single family home sold for $145,750 in 2006. By 2016, that figure had more than doubled to $297,500.
“The current real estate economy continues to remain quite active and very robust,” Tarrant Appraisal District's Randy Armstrong said.
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According to Armstrong, due to higher property tax assessments, the number of people protesting their new rates is up substantially in 2016, including vacant land properties.
“It’s a double edge sword,” said Northern. “It’s good in the fact that your values are going up. That’s great for property owners. But then again they have the added expense of paying more taxes. So it can kind of help you and hurt you.”
