Economy

Economic Issues Affecting Texas Housing Markets

New Home Sales Level Off With Rates Near Record Lows

New home sales have leveled off now that mortgage interest rates stagnating at record lows. It would appear the massive stimulus from the Fed which began in March of this year has run its course. The big question is what comes next. The Census Bureau reported new residential home sales for October at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 999,000 units. This was better than expected and previous months were revised upward as well. Compared to October of last year, new home sales rose 41 percent. Median and average prices of new homes sold (contracted) [...]

North Texas Home Sales Defy Economic Stagnation

North Texas home sales continued to defy economic stagnation in September. NTREIS data reflect a 24 percent rise in home sales in the DFW area last month. Pending sales look to be up by 17 percent. The median price of a DFW home jumped 10.3 percent compared to a year ago. Average prices climbed 13.4 percent. Months of inventory plummeted 46 percent to just 1.9 months of supply. Denton County home sales skyrocketed 30 percent with pending sales up 18 percent. The median price of a Denton County home jumped 7.8 percent while average prices [...]

North Texas Real Estate Market Partying Like It’s 1999

The North Texas real estate market continued to ramp higher in August. Median home prices in Denton County jumped 6.3 percent last month, with average prices rising 7.4 percent compared to a year ago. Denton County home sales increased 10 percent, while pending sales for Denton County homes shot 33 percent. Home buyers are still riding that wave of liquidity, and who can blame them. Mortgage rates just hit a new record low in the latest weekly survey, with the rate on the 30-year fixed dropping to 2.86 percent. Those low rates helped push North [...]

Denton Texas Employment Stalls With Fading Govt Stimulus

Denton Texas employment stalled in July as stimulus benefits for many Americans came to an end. While Denton and Denton County showed slight increases in employment from June levels, North Texas as a whole actually lost jobs during the month. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA region saw unadjusted nonfarm employment fall by 12,900 jobs from June levels. Employment for the North Texas region was down by 150,500 jobs compared to July 2019. The latest numbers from the Texas Workforce Commission in July are a stark reminder that the real economy has not fully recovered, even if [...]

New Home Sales Continue Covid Rebound, Up 6.9% Year-over-Year

The Census Bureau reported new home sales for June at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 776,000. That was a 13.8% jump from May sales and a 6.9% increase compared to June 2019. This was far better than June existing home sales reported by the National Association of Realtors this week which were still down 11.3% compared to the same time a year ago. According to Census estimates for June, median and average new home prices rose to $329,200 and $384,700 respectively. Both figures are sharp increases from May, and even June 2019. The non [...]

Corona Hangover Coming To The North Texas Housing Market

A corona hangover is coming to the North Texas housing market. It's not a question of if, but when. Texas posted a 3rd consecutive daily record yesterday for Covid-19 fatalities, and the 2nd wave of the coronavirus has put the reopening of the Texas economy on hold. The fall opening of schools and universities is becoming more problematic by the day. Anxiety is a now common theme because there are few good choices available when leaders at the Federal and state level have failed us in so many ways. North Texas home sales rebounded sharply [...]

North Texas Housing Market Hit With Two Viruses

The North Texas housing market is being hit with two viruses. The Covid-19 coronavirus and the subsequent lockdowns which halted economic activity resulted in a 26 percent decline in home sales in May. That was the worst annual decline for the Dallas-Fort Worth housing market in a decade. Contrary to the story spun in the area's largest newspaper it wasn't the pandemic that "chased buyers away". The 42 million new unemployment claims and a cliff dive in the stock market were responsible for that. It's difficult to get a mortgage when you are on unemployment, [...]

Denton County Unemployment Spikes To 12.9% In April

Denton County unemployment hit 12.9 percent in April, and the City of Denton saw unemployment spike to 14.1 percent last month. For the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington MSA, unemployment rose to 12.8 percent in April. Those were the sobering statistics from the Texas Workforce Commission. The destruction to the North Texas labor force created by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns is hard to grasp, because the United States hasn't experienced anything similar since the Great Depression. Even after the Great Recession in 2008 U.S. unemployment levels peaked around 10 percent. The May unemployment numbers for Denton County [...]

U.S. New Home Sales Fall 9.5% To 627,000 SAAR

The Census Bureau reported new home sales (contracts) for March at a seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 627,000. That was 15.4 percent below the revised February rate and down 9.5% from the same time a year ago. As a reminder, the Census counts a new home sale at the time of contract signing, not the actual closing. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic we actually have a more relevant, forward-looking indicator of new home sales activity, similar to the pending sales metric we would use in the MLS. The median new home sales [...]

Denton County New Home Prices Fall 12 Percent

Average new home prices in Denton County were 12 percent lower than the same time a year ago. Updated NTREIS Trends figures show a 7.2 percent decline in the median price for a new home in Denton County while average prices of new construction slid 11.7 percent from March of last year. New home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have been on a continued a downward trend since the summer of 2017. The reason in one word...affordability. The trend of the incredible shrinking new home and lot size throughout the DFW area is going [...]

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