Hometown Real Estate Glory

Dallas declared one of the best U.S. cities to buy a home this year

Dallas is the No. 6 housing market to invest in for 2016.

Photo courtesy of Keller Williams

Looking to make a big housing investment this year? According to Forbes, you’re in the right place. In an annual report, the publication names Dallas the No. 6 "best buy city" for 2016.

Forbes teamed up with Local Market Monitor, a data company that tracks home prices and economic factors in more than 300 housing markets, to determine the top 20 American cities that promise a healthy real estate market to invest in this year.

Although these places are great for people looking to put their money into rental properties, it doesn’t bode well for first-time homebuyers in the low- and middle-income bracket due to high housing costs. Even so, these cities are where aspiring homeowners have the best opportunity to make an economically sound purchase, according to Forbes.

Down from its No. 5 spot in 2015, Dallas places in the top 10 due to these main factors: healthy job growth (3.5 percent annually), strong population growth (6.2 percent from 2011 to 2014), and anticipated home price appreciation (11 percent annually).

Texas has the second-greatest number of cities on Forbes’ list, behind Florida. In addition to Dallas, where homes average $211,000, two other Lone Star State cities make the cut. San Antonio comes in at No. 3, where home prices average $201,000, while Austin places at No. 7, with an average home price of $281,000.

Forbes points to Dallas' welcoming of the relocation of major corporations Toyota, State Farm Insurance, and Liberty Mutual Insurance; Austin's growth in the high-tech sector; and San Antonio’s high number of financial firms and data centers as boosting each metro area's individual ranking.

Ingo Winzer, founder and president of Local Market Monitor, predicts that it will be a while before Texas prices reach the point where these cities will no longer be good investments. This marker, he estimates, is overpriced housing by about 20 percent, which is a nice indication for Dallas, where the current under priced calculation sits at 5 percent.

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GP News

Grand Prairie expands to the south with new master-planned community

Rendering courtesy of Provident

Goodland Grand Prairie

The City of Grand Prairie is growing fast and expanding to make way for a new master-planned development south of US Highway 287 and along Tollway 360, in Ellis and Johnson counties.

The community development, called Goodland, is the result of Grand Prairie’s recent 1,500-acre annexation extending its southern border toward Mansfield. Overall, with the added land, Goodland will be a 5,000-acre site featuring 15,000 residences including townhomes, custom homes, and gated communities for 50,000 residents.

According to a release, it will be a “city within a city” and a 45-minute drive from Dallas-Fort Worth. Beyond housing, there will be shops, restaurants, schools, public and private event venues, regional sports fields and complexes, dance halls, churches, trail systems, city parks, ponds, and preserved green spaces.

“This is a significant step in our city’s development,” says Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen in a statement. “Unlike many of our neighboring cities, we have the unique advantage of new development opportunities to our south that will drive the growth and prosperity of our city. We recognized the opportunity and took decisive action.”

Leading the development is Provident, a Dallas-based real estate firm that has created other master-planned communities across Dallas-Fort Worth, such as Preston Hollow Village and Hillstead in Collin County. Provident has plans to work nature into the space design with more than 1,600 acres of creek corridors and floodplain land.

Plans are ongoing for a centralized mixed-use walkable Town Center, complete with civic buildings and other commercial development. Further south on the property near Highway 67, light industrial uses and other private employment campuses are already underway, projects that will contribute vital tax dollars for city growth and future expansions.

“This level of placemaking is quite rare, and certainly not easy to execute, especially in a brand-new community," says Provident Managing Director Rylan Yowell in a statement. "We are committed to a long-term vision with a desire to be good stewards of the land."

A new four-lane road called Goodland Parkway will link Goodland to Grand Prairie at Tollway 360 and US Highway 287. It's set to open by December 2025.

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