Positive Signs Appearing Frequently in the Houston Real Estate Market

Has the Dallas-Fort Worth housing market finally bottomed out? Many real estate experts hope so.

Let’s look at the facts:

• Pre-owned, single-family home sales in North Texas dropped nearly 25 percent in May from the previous year, according to the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. and the Texas A&M University Real Estate Center.
• These sources also reported that May saw the lowest home sales since 2000.
• Median home prices in the North Texas region are down about 4 percent this year, to $139,500.
• Condominium sales in North Texas were down 33 percent for the first five months of 2009.

As sales continue to decline, analysts are closely looking for signs that the market is finally leveling off.  Although there are certainly different viewpoints and opinions regarding when this will occur, most analysts agree that both consumer confidence and the job market  in the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area need to show signs of improvement before the real estate market can begin balancing out.

Another interesting point is that luxury homes, valued at $1 million or more, were also down a whopping 45 percent for the first, five months of 2009, showing that the recession and housing market slump has affected all classes.

Homes on the market continue to decrease, as well, indicating that many homeowners are simply looking to ride out the storm and list their home when sales begin to pick up. As of May, there were about 40,000 homes listed on the MLS, which is a 10 percent decline from a year earlier.

And Lest we Forget the Sub-Prime Mortgage Mess

There’s one thing for certain: the subprime mortgages are stilling coming back to haunt North Texas. There seems to be a large chunk of homeowners still struggling with their prime adjustable-rate loans.

And, although many of the subprime adjustable-rate mortgages have just about finished wreaking havoc on the market, the next round is set to hit, and it doesn’t look good.

We all know what that means – foreclosures. The Dallas-Forth Worth area – and for that matter the rest of the country – is still seeing foreclosure numbers hitting historic highs.

To give you a good idea of the gravity of the foreclosure mess, consider that there are more than 6,000 homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area scheduled for foreclosure in July alone, according to the Addison-based Foreclosure Listing Service.

Don’t Count out Dallas Just Yet

There are bright spots on the North Texas real estate horizon. While other parts of the country that experienced a real estate bubble of extraordinary portions, such as California and Florida, are expected to continue to struggle well through 2009 and beyond, many parts of the country – many located in Texas – are expected to recover sooner than later.

Just some of the areas expected to bounce back from the recession and housing market slump are Dallas, Austin, San Antonio and McAllen. The healthy economy of Dallas and other Texas cities comes from its growth in the health care and education sectors.

Luckily, these Texas cities never experienced the housing boom like other areas of the country, and it’s a good thing; for that’s exactly what is propelling them toward a swift recovery.