Despite higher mortgage rates and a slowdown in the market, Dallas-Fort Worth home prices and sales held up better than in other Texas metro areas in the first three months of 2023.
In the first quarter, 72,480 homes were sold throughout the state, a 17% decrease from the same quarter of 2022, according to a new report from Texas Realtors. The report includes homes listed through Realtor associations, so it does not include homes sold directly by homebuilders.
Available home inventory in D-FW more than doubled year over year to 16,467 properties. The region still has just over two months of inventory, fueling a strong seller’s market and far below the six months of inventory that a market balanced between buyers and sellers would have.
“Last quarter, we saw the Texas housing market shift toward a more balanced state between homebuyers and sellers,” Texas Realtors chairman Marcus Phipps said in a statement. “The increase in active listings suggests that buyers in many areas have more options to choose from than they’ve had recently.”
D-FW saw a 14.6% year-over-year decline in home sales in the first quarter with 23,110 transactions. The Beaumont, Wichita Falls and Corpus Christi areas saw the biggest declines in sales. Longview was the only market statewide to see an increase in transactions, with 439 deals, 9.7% more than the same quarter a year ago.
The median home price increased slightly statewide to $326,800, a 0.6% increase from a year before. The median price in Dallas-Fort Worth was up 1.5% to $385,000, while the Austin and Houston areas saw declines.
In the first quarter, Austin-area and D-FW-area homes were the most expensive in the state, while homes in the Wichita Falls and Texarkana areas were the least expensive.
“The increase in inventory was not enough to outpace the demand for housing in the market,” Phipps said. “While there are more available options for buyers, there is still a significant number of potential buyers throughout the state, which is why median prices are close to what they were in most markets a year ago.”
Austin and other metros nationwide where prices skyrocketed during the pandemic are seeing the most drastic price corrections.
D-FW home price growth has fallen to the lowest point in more than a decade, according to a separate report from the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Index. Other markets, especially in Western states, have seen year-over-year price declines. San Francisco and Seattle prices have fallen by double digits.
Five Texas metros saw year-over-year home-price declines, according to Texas Realtors. The biggest drop was in Texarkana (17.2%), followed by Austin (11.2%), Midland (1.4%), Lubbock (0.8%) and Houston (0.5%).
Homes are sitting on the market longer than in previous years. Throughout the state, homes spent an average of 64 days on the market before going under contract, 27 more days than in the first quarter of 2022.
