The North Texas housing market welcomed 2022 with a double-digit sales price gain as homebuyers chased a limited supply of properties.
Median sales prices for single-family homes sold by real estate agents shot up by 23 percent in January compared with the same month last year, according to a Dallas Morning News analysis of the latest data from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M.
The price gains come as housing inventory falls to lows. In more than two dozen counties studied by the Texas survey, only 5,620 single-family homes were listed for sale with agents –the lowest inventory of houses available for purchase in more than three decades. The number of houses listed for sale with real estate agents in Dallas-Fort Worth was almost 40 percent less than in January 2021.
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The chronic shortage of available homes and continued migration to North Texas are likely to keep home costs high, analysts said.
The area saw 7,143 properties change hands last month–a 4 percent increase from January 2021 and the highest number of home sales by agents ever recorded in the area in January.
North Texas real estate agents sold a record 117,700 houses in 2021 and continued to increase through January. Median home purchase prices for the year were 18 percent higher than in 2020, while the median time to close on a house in North Texas was just 43 days.
“We’re forecasting a whirlwind year ahead for buyers and, if January housing trends are any indication, 2022 competition is already heating up,” Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale said in a just-released January update.
“But it’s a different story on the other side of the closing table, with new seller listings continuing to decline in January,” she said. “Factors like omicron uncertainties could be causing sellers to hesitate even when they know housing conditions are favorable.”
[Dallas Morning News] – Maddy Sperling