The housing market has been so red-hot in North Texas that even a slight cooling is hard to detect. But we are glad to see signs that supply might be at least catching a glimpse of demand after years of running far behind.
Houses are still moving. Real estate reporter Nick Wooten told us earlier this month that the Dallas-Fort Worth area “ranked second in the nation for homes sold and active home listings last month, trailing only New York as the spring selling season heats up.”
And prices are still on the rise, Wooten wrote.
But there is some good news. While the nation’s prices climbed 6.5% year year over year in March, the Dallas-Fort Worth area saw a softer 3.6% increase. Supply is growing here, with more homes coming on the market. “The number of active listings in the D-FW metroplex was 24,128 last month, up nearly 46% from a year earlier,” Wooten reported May 15, citing data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.
There is a lot we can extrapolate from this data. The region is growing at an expansive pace. That’s putting enormous pressure on prices at a time when inflation and high interest rates are doing plenty in themselves to make it harder to buy a home.
But we are beginning to see a more balanced market. Wooten’s reporting indicates that the region had a 3.2-month inventory of available housing in April. Six months is a signal of a balanced market, so we aren’t there yet. But we are moving in the right direction from a sub 1-month supply in January 2022.
North Texas cannot afford to let housing prices get out of control. Affordable housing is among our greatest competitive strengths. If you take that away from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, it will be much more difficult to attract the businesses that help build prosperity.
Dirt has been turning, thankfully. We hope that leads to a leveling and even a cooling in prices soon. Working families need to be able to see a future where they have a mortgage they can afford that builds equity for the future.
The way prices have been going, that’s been a harder goal to reach. Seeing the supply line increase is a comfort that we are getting back into the business of making sure people at every income level can have a place to call home.
That’s what this region has traditionally been about. And it should be a north star for the generations to come.
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