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Friday, April 23, 2010
High-end home sales bolster Dallas-Fort Worth market
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
stevebrown@dallasnews.com
A surge in high-end home sales has given some Dallas-area neighborhoods a big boost this year. Preowned home sales jumped more than 80 percent in the Park Cities and more than 50 percent in North Dallas during the first quarter of this year from the same period in 2009.Other big increases were recorded in Westlake, which is northwest of Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, and in northeast and northwest Dallas, according to sales data from real estate agents' Multiple Listing Service.
Overall sales in the areas The Dallas Morning News tracks quarterly increased less than 3 percent. And in many moderately priced neighborhoods on Dallas' east and south sides, home sales this year are down from the same period in 2009, statistics from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems show.
The sizable jump in sales in affluent neighborhoods is a positive sign, analysts and property agents agree. "We are definitely seeing a much stronger upper-end spring market – certainly heads and shoulders ahead of last spring," said David Griffin, CEO of Dallas' David Griffin & Co. Realtors. "Buyers still want outstanding value for their dollars, but they are giving themselves permission to act, which they didn't do so often last year.
"Almost every agent in our office is working multiple transactions at present – again a far cry from 2009," Griffin said.
Rising confidence
First-quarter sales of million-dollar homes in North Texas increased 23 percent year over year. Sales of houses priced between $800,000 and $900,000 were up 56 percent.
Those gains are up from the market's low in early 2009. "The market for higher-priced homes was very weak during the recession, both due to a falloff in demand and difficulties obtaining financing," said D'Ann Petersen, a business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
High-end home sales bolster Dallas-Fort Worth market | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas
"The recent pickup in activity likely reflects a rise in consumer confidence stemming from the modest rebound in the economy and an improvement in credit markets.
"This is another positive sign for the local economy, although I still think it will be a slow recovery." Some neighborhoods are still waiting for signs of recovery. In DeSoto, home sales through the MLS fell 28 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Sales were down 25 percent in the Duncanville area, 20 percent in Lancaster and 19 percent in Cedar Hill.
"I believe the drop in sales at the lower price points has been impacted by two things," said David Brown, who heads the Dallas office for housing analyst Metrostudy Inc.
"First, the initial tax-credit deadline back in November of 2009 may have pulled some buyers into the market earlier, pushing up the number of sales in the fourth quarter of last year. "Secondly, mortgage qualification has become much stricter, which has shrunk the pool of qualified buyers in a number of these submarkets," Brown said.
Finding value
Buyers can be quick to act when prices decline in affluent areas, he said. And prices in the Park Cities were down 7 percent from a year ago in the first quarter. "I believe many buyers are viewing this as a unique opportunity to buy in a quality neighborhood at a
good value," Brown said.
Of course, the lower prices cut both ways.
"Sellers realize that they're not going to get the prices that they got in 2006 or 2007," Griffin said. Even so, the number of for sale signs is up this year in many neighborhoods.
"If a seller has been on the sidelines waiting for a better market to sell, we're seeing a trend for them to go ahead and put their home for sale," Griffin said.
The Collin County Association of Realtors reported this week that new home listings in March were at their highest level in two and a half years. The group also said that its number of homes under contract is at the highest level since July 2008. Prices for Dallas-area homes are still all over the place.
The biggest gain was in East Dallas – up 23 percent from a year ago.
But annual median home sales prices fell in the first quarter in more than a dozen Dallas-area residential districts. Whether prices are up or down, real estate agents say they're glad to see the market stirring this spring. "We are gratefully very busy," said Sherryl Wesson, who manages Ebby Halliday Realtors' Lakewood and Northeast Dallas offices.
"The entrance of the first-time buyer [many seeking federal tax credits] coupled with feelings of a bit of an economic upswing has helped the move up buyers as well."
