March Real Estate News Digest
In a busy real estate market like Dallas-Fort Worth, news can come fast. Here’s a quick update.
MetroTex: Residential home prices continue to increase
Residential real estate prices have reached unprecedented levels in some North Texas areas while supply continues to be extremely limited for home buyers.
The price per square foot of single-family homes sold in North Texas was $188 — up 22% from January 2021.
Home sales increased by 4% in North Texas compared to January 2021.
MetroTex President Taylor Walcik says the vast separation between supply and demand could continue to cause lower increases in sales volume.
“Sales prices probably aren’t going to come down drastically in 2022 but they could begin to flatten out,” said Walcik. “We still have high buyer demand and hopefully will see more listings in the 2022 selling season this Spring and Summer.”
More than 75% of the sales in North Texas are priced between $200,000 and $600,000 while the number of listings in the same price point makes up 63% of the active market.
At the end of January there were 5,620 active listings throughout the coverage area of the local MLS (North Texas Real Estate Information Systems). The number of active listings represents a 28% decline compared to the same time last year.
Be an HGTV star
OK, maybe not a star, but North Texas HGTV host Jenn Todryk, who appears on the network’s No Demo Reno, is looking for homeowners ready to spruce up.
The show now has a casting call out for families in the area (including Dallas) who want to “cosmetically update their homes.”
According to the call, they’re looking for:
- Homeowners in need of a cosmetic home renovation ranging from 2-4 spaces
- Homeowners must have an existing budget between $50K-100K (3-4 spaces) and $10K-20K for (2 spaces)
- 3-4 space renovations will focus on kitchens, bathrooms, living areas, main bedrooms, and a bonus space
- 2-space refreshes will focus on outdoor spaces, kitchen, laundry room, office, bathroom, In-law suites, living spaces
- Homeowners must be willing and able to vacate during the remodel (6-8 weeks).
To find out more (or apply) click here.
Dallas homes might be big, but they’re not the biggest
A recent analysis of U.S. Census data found that in Dallas, about 12.4% of homes have at least four bedrooms, compared to 21.6% nationally. Out of all large U.S. cities, Dallas has the 10th smallest share of homes with more than four bedrooms, said moving company HireaHelper, who commissioned the report.
To identify the cities with the largest homes, researchers calculated the percentage of existing homes in each city with four or more bedrooms and ranked them accordingly.
The share of Dallas homes with more than five bedrooms was 2.1%, compared to 4.6% nationally. The median home price at the time of the report was $290,564, compared to $315,368 nationally.
The full report can be found here.
Dallas-Fort Worth tops nation in real estate activity
It’s probably no surprise to anyone, but the Dallas metropolitan area just ranked first in the nation for the most activity in all sectors of real estate combined for the last 10 years in a study commissioned by storage company StorageCafe.
The report found that building permits were issued for about 323,000 single-family homes and more than 233,000 multifamily units over the past decade, and that office space increased by 55 million square feet and industrial space by almost 230 million square feet.
The pandemic didn’t do much to slow the market — in fact, in 2020 and 2021 the area posted the highest numbers of permits for new single-family homes in the last decade — 44,000 and 50,000, respectively. Almost 27,000 new apartments were permitted in 2021.
The report, which is for the entire Dallas-Fort Worth metro area, does not factor in the notoriously slow permitting process in Dallas.
