Dallas home prices advance at a crawl

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

Home prices boomed in the second quarter – they were up by more than 20 percent in a dozen U.S. cities.

But an oversupply of houses on the market in the Dallas area kept prices snoozing.

Nationwide, U.S. median home sales prices rose by more than 9 percent in the second quarter, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday. A record number of cities – 49 – had double-digit increases.

The Dallas-area median price was $141,000, up 0.8 percent.

Real estate economists say that a skimpy supply of houses for sale in most of the country is driving prices to record levels.

"Even so, the low level of mortgage interest rates and loan origination costs are providing the headroom necessary for buyers to handle higher prices in most areas," Realtors' chief economist David Lereah said in the report.

But in Dallas, prices are stuck in neutral. Through the first seven months of the year, there was no change in Dallas-area home sales prices, according to North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc.

Contrast that with Las Vegas, where home prices were up 52.4 percent in the second quarter, the biggest quarterly increase ever for the 128 U.S. markets the Realtors track.

Other Texas housing markets were mixed.

Amarillo and Austin saw modest declines. The greatest gains were in Beaumont, up 9.9 percent, and Corpus Christi, up 6.6 percent

Housing market red-hot in Dallas

07:42 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 6, 2004

By JEFF BRADY / WFAA-TV

After a summer of record-setting home sales, the Dallas market could soon see a cooldown.

New short-term interest rates are impacting local real estate - and mortgage rates too.

A 3,500-square-foot Cape Cod home in Kessler Park with a dramatic backyard, for example, may be scenic but slow to sell in a crowded real estate market. The city has more homes on the market right now than ever before - a record high of almost 28,000.

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Yet, Dallas realtors are busy on both sides. 4,500 homes are selling each month - the seventh-highest sales volume ever

"It is a transient population here in the Dallas-Ft Worth area," said Chuck Dannis, an adjunct professor at the SMU Cox School of Business. "It is a young population (with) a tendency to move - not necessarily within its confines, but geographically outside the D-FW area."

That demographic profile, the lingering low interest rates and a recovering job market have all driven Dallas real estate toward a record-setting pace this summer.

"I wouldn't classify it as a buyers' market, and I wouldn't classify it as a sellers' market," said realtor Steve Hapgood. "I would classify it more ... neutral."

The market is in rapid transition. Some neighborhoods are busier than others, depending on the features. Kessler Park has vintage homes and enormous trees.

"The volume of homes is not limiting me at all," said prospective home buyer Red Starks. "Every time we set aside a day to go look, there's always something new."

Realtors said to stand out in the crowd, properties need to appeal on three levels.

"Price, location and condition," Hapgood said.

That's a tall order for some homes, but a necessity in competitive times.