While builders cut back on new home construction in 2022, the region’s trend held true: northward expansion along major thoroughfares.
Builders started 3,226 new homes last year in the U.S. 380 corridor (including Aubrey and Oak Point), the most of any Dallas-Fort Worth submarket, according to a new report from Dallas housing analyst Residential Strategies. The area beat out Kaufman County, which ranked No. 1 a year ago.
“Dallas-Fort Worth has had a tendency to move north through the years, so this is more of that,” Ted Wilson, principal of Residential Strategies, said.
Of the busiest housing markets in the region, the firm found new homes in Prosper were the priciest, with a $696,000 median marketed by builders before upgrades.
Some areas that made the top 15 in 2021 were knocked off the list, including the Celina ISD area, Red Oak, Waxahachie, Nevada, Josephine and Caddo Mills. New additions include Fort Worth’s Highway 114 corridor — including Justin — Melissa and North Denton County.
North and East McKinney jumped from 14th to third place with 2,510 starts, followed by the Princeton Independent School District area and Farmersville (2,110) and the Prosper Independent School District area (1,977).
Wilson said part of the reason areas such as Kaufman County saw a drop in housing activity last year was lower demand in communities aimed at buyers moving up from a starter home. Markets with communities in higher price points that cater to people moving from out of state were more active, he said.
“The move-up buyer probably has a 3% mortgage, so for them to be willing to walk away from that to buy a new house, that’s a challenge,” he said. “It’s a different story when you look at many of the northern submarkets that cater to the relocation buyer, because those buyers are coming to the market, and they have to get a house.”
Builders started construction of almost 8,000 new homes in D-FW last quarter, down 38% from a year ago when they started just over 12,900 homes, according to Residential Strategies.
That marked the largest decline in quarterly North Texas home starts since the Great Recession as homebuilders focused more on completing the thousands of new homes they started when the market was more active.
