North Texas house sales keep going up

But home starts outpaced purchases in first quarter, report says

12:02 PM CDT on Tuesday, April 12, 2005

By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News

The North Texas housing market continued to perform in the first quarter.

New-home sales were up 1 percent from a year ago, setting another record for the 12-month period. And pre-owned home sales rose 2 percent in the first three months of 2005.

"Interest rates are ticking up a little bit, but we are also seeing better job growth numbers, which help the housing market."

Dallas-Fort Worth builders sold 9,149 homes in the first quarter, Metrostudy said in a report released Tuesday. And for the year ending in March, more than 41,000 new houses were sold.

But sales aren't growing as fast as home starts.

In the first quarter, builders started more than 10,000 houses, a 17 percent jump from a year ago.

"In three of the last four quarters, we have started more houses than we have sold," Mr. Brown said. "I expected starts to be kind of flat this quarter, but instead we saw it ramp up."

Some of the increase may be seasonal.

"This is the time of the year that housing construction really picks up," he said. "From this point through the summer are peak selling times."

Builders report that demand for higher-priced housing is particularly good, said Ted Wilson of Residential Strategies Inc.

"Starts of homes over $300,000 are up about 33.6 percent," he said. "It's a direct result of better employment and relocation buyers."

So far the spring housing market is on track, surveys show.

"The builders say they have had a great season so far," Mr. Wilson said. "February and the first part of March were excellent.

"They've had a mixed result in the last few weeks because the mortgage rates have ticked up slightly," he said.

Average long-term mortgage rates have been near 6 percent in recent weeks, up about a half percentage point from early in the year.

Pre-owned home sales in North Texas were down about 1 percent in March, the latest period for which statistics are available from North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc.

More than 7,000 pre-owned homes sold in North Texas last month.

For the first quarter, 16,676 pre-owned homes changed hands.

While home resales remain near record levels, prices are virtually unchanged from a year ago.

During the first quarter, the median sales price for pre-owned homes was $137,000, up 1 percent from a year ago.

The number of homes on the market has increased 5 percent since March 2004, with 42,089 pre-owned homes now for sale.

D-FW AREA HOME RESALES UPDATE

March pre-owned home sales and prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area vs. a year ago:

Single-family homes 7,004 - 1%
Median price $140,000 + 2%
Average days on market 73 - 6%
Pending sales 9,317 + 9%
Listed for sale 42,089 + 5%
Condos and townhomes 388 + 1%
Median price $114,900 + 10%
Average days on market 84 - 3%
Pending sales 564 + 15%
Listed for sale 3,276 + 11%

SOURCES: Texas A&M University Real Estate Center; North Texas Real Estate Information Systems