Dallas-Fort Worth home sales took an unusual tumble in June. What’s up with the market?
Home sales tend to heat up during scorching Texas summers. Brighter and warmer days make for more pleasant house tours, and school vacations present relatively calm windows to make a move.
But market movements in June bucked the trend.
Analysts at Texas A&M’s real estate research center recorded unusual dips in home sales and selling prices in all four of the Texas major metro areas.
The number of homes that changed hands tumbled 14.2% across the state between May and June. The Metroplex experienced an almost 17% drop in sales over the month-long period, slightly steeper than declines in the Houston (14.5%), Austin (14.5%), and San Antonio-area (13%) markets.
Flagging demand also manifested itself in modest price falls. The median asking price for a DFW home in June was $390,050, 1.7% less than a month prior, the sharpest decline among “the Big Four.” Home prices across the state fell by 1.4%.
Developers seemed to lose their appetite too. Local planning agencies across the state doled out 18.9% fewer building permits for single-family residences than they did in May. Permits plunged 20.1% in DFW and 30.1% in Austin.
Already built houses are staying on the market longer. The average lifespan of a home listing rose from 57 to 59 days statewide. The total number of listings also climbed by 2.7%.
“Eventually, more inventory will help boost home sales and tame home price gains in the upcoming months,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors. “Increased housing supply spells good news for consumers who want to see more properties before making purchasing decisions.”
The June housing market in Fort Worth proper largely followed suit. The city’s housing inventory — a measurement of how long it would take to sell off the city’s existing supply of homes — eked up to 3.5 months from 3.2 in May, one, inching closer toward a market more balanced between buyers and sellers (typically signaled by a 6 month housing inventory).
Sales in Cowtown also tumbled by close to 8%, but the median price for homes that did sell climbed by roughly $9,000. The median market price rose almost 2% year-over-year, an unwelcome upswing for many middle- and low-income families struggling to own a house.
Experts attribute the summer’s strange start, in part, to stubbornly high interest rates keeping prospective homebuyers out of the market.
“The mortgage rates continue to sit just below 7%, but if they come down lower, more buyers will likely enter the market,” said Blake Barry, president of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors. “The key for buyers is to be ready when the right home comes along.”
