Dallas Business Journal reporter Korri Kezar has done a lot of driving this year. She's driven to Flower Mound, Garland, Frisco, McKinney, Grapevine, Plano, Irving-Las Colinas, Denton, The Colony, and Allen in recent months---and she is still driving—to find out how much home your money can buy around DFW. Kezar has found pockets of affordability, “Like Anna, Celina, even Prosper”. But she has also found some surprising surges, “There were some where I scratched my head at the price tag”.
According to data kept by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, since about 2012, median home prices here have soared, reaching record highs. In some of those years, prices rose by double digit percentages. Meantime, income here has gone up nicely in some years but hardly at all in others. For many potential homebuyers, making those ends meet requires finding a home that is $150,000-$250,000.
“I would say 40-45 percent of people are in that price range”, says Realtor Rick Brooks, of Dallas City Center Realtors. Brooks looked up some of those lower-priced properties, “Look how they’re all under contract”. He points out that those listings get bought quickly, and says it is, “A very competitive, very furious market---so if you are in that price range you definitely want to get your offer in sooner rather than later”.
Insider tip: If you want a lot of homes to choose from around that $200,000 mark, Jim Berrong, a broker with Dave Perry Miller Real Estate, points to one city, “We’re looking at homes currently available in Garland”. Brooks recently pulled up a large screen of listings of nearly 100 houses in Garland right now at that price point. Berrong showed us a 3 bedroom, 3 bathroom home with an asking price of $225,000. He says that same house--several miles away--might list for $100,000 more.
Berrong says that Garland, with big pluses like school choice, good mass transit options, and a family-friendly atmosphere, hasn’t been fully discovered like some local cities that have skyrocketed in price. But even in the hottest spots here, the housing market is cooling off.
“A lot of price reductions across the board”, says Rick Brooks. He adds, “I am starting to see the signs, signals, or indications that the buyer’s market is returning”. A ‘buyer’s market’, where prices are pressured downward, would be significant. North Texas has been in a ‘seller’s market’ for the better part of seven years.
The Dallas Business Journal’s Korri Kezar plans to visit more micro-markets around DFW in the weeks and months to come. From what she has seen already, she believes middle class buyers in North Texas can still find affordable housing, “I think it is still pretty hopeful they can find something nice and something they like”.