The median price of Fort Worth home just hit $300,000. How much higher will it go?
Sticker shock may continue to hit Fort Worth homebuyers as the median price reached $300,000 for the first time in June.
That’s a 22% jump from this time last year, according to the monthly report from the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, which said a backlog of buyers and low interest rates are driving the rising costs. Housing prices have been trending up nationally for several years, but few people would have predicted a year ago prices would jump this high, said Shelby Kimball, the associations immediate past president.
The jump has made buying a home hard in Fort Worth, especially for first-time or lower-income buyers, he said.
“If you’re a buyer, you’re going to need to be flexible and a little imaginative, especially if you’re a desperate homebuyer,” Kimball said. “You may need to being thinking what you might do after you move in, how much work are you willing to take on to make that house something you’ll like more.”
Home prices were similar around Fort Worth. The median price across Tarrant County was $310,000, according to the monthly report. A home was slightly cheaper in Johnson County at $299,000 and more expensive Parker County, where the median price was $385,000.
Despite the jump, Kimball said Fort Worth remained less expensive than other cities, noting Austin’s median home price hit $565,000 in May.
With houses staying on the market 19 days on average, the city has about a little more than a month’s worth of inventory. A balanced market should have an inventory for about six and half months, according to the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. High-cost homes and those needing a lot of renovations are remaining on the market longer, but Kimbell said many homes sell within four days.
Many people decided not to move last year amid the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a backlog of interested buyers now, Kimbell said. Low mortgage rates are also driving interest while high construction costs have slowed the number of homes being built. Active listings are down 44% year over year in Fort Worth and 43% nationwide, according to the Association of Realtors.
Early this month the Star-Telegram reported DFW builder Altura Homes, which builds single-family dwellings from $200,000 to $500,000 warned more than 150 buyers that homes are likely to increase beyond the original agreed-upon price in their contracts, and that construction could be delayed up to a year.
Though Kimbell believes the market may soon reach a plateau, it’s unclear how much more home prices will soar. One thing is clear, he said, they likely won’t fall.
“Unless we’re in a recession, we don’t see big drops in the Fort Worth market,” he said. “I don’t expect, and the economists I listen to in the industry don’t expect, our median price to fall very much.”
This story was originally published July 13, 2021 at 4:26 PM.
