Demand for single-family homes in North Texas has remained strong amid growing economic uncertainty, higher mortgage rates, and easing home prices across other parts of the state.
The median home price in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex rose to $385,000 in the first three months of 2023, a 1.5% increase compared to the same quarter last year, and more than double the 0.6% median increase seen statewide, according to the latest housing report from Texas Realtors, a 150,000-person Texas-based real estate organization.
While the housing market in DFW has shown resilience to the broader slowdown, Marcus Phipps, chairman of Texas Realtors, suggested that the Lone Star State as a whole has begun to shift toward a more equal balance between buyers and sellers, as seen from the year-over-year change in days spent on the market and sales closed.
Homes in DFW spent an average of 60 days on the market and 34 days in the closing process, nearly 30 days longer than the same period a year earlier and fewer than the combined statewide average of 100 days, according to the report.
During this time, DFW had 16,467 active listings and 20,166 sales closed, representing a nearly 130% increase in listings and an 8.4% decrease in sales. Even with the number of active listings and the amount of available inventory more than doubling, DFW had just 2.1 months of for-sale inventory, lower than the statewide count of 2.7 months.
“The increase in inventory was not enough to outpace the demand for housing in the market,” said Phipps in a news release about the report. “While there are more available options for buyers, there is still a significant number of potential buyers throughout the state, which is why median prices are close to what they were in most markets a year ago.”
Demand for homes in DFW is further underscored when looking at the year-over-year change among other major metros in Texas.
For example, compared to the robust 1.5% increase seen across DFW, the San Antonio metro only saw its median home price increase by a modest 1%. Meanwhile, Austin’s metro saw a drop of 11.2%, while Houston’s metro saw a decline of 0.5%.
Mortgage rates could be contributing to lower sales from the buying and selling sides, according to the report.
“Mortgage rates are up 1.4% from a year ago, which may affect the size of the loan that many buyers can afford,” the report states. “Also, homeowners who don’t have to move may be reluctant to sell if their existing mortgage is several percentage points lower than current mortgage rates.”
Helped by an already-strong start to the year, housing activity in DFW is only expected to persist throughout the remainder of 2023, according to Phipps.
“With a strong Texas labor market and the continued trend of people moving to Texas, we expect the housing market to remain robust this year,” he said in the press release.
“As always with real estate, market conditions vary from one locality to the next, so we encourage buyers and sellers to work closely with a local Realtor to help them achieve the best results in their real estate transactions,” said Phipps.
