Real Estate Report
Dallas single-family home prices continue to rise, but is a slowdown on the horizon?
If my morning walk around Midway Hollow is any indication, the Dallas real estate market is booming. My neighborhood is teardown city, with new construction rising up almost daily on nearly every block. And neither those new homes nor the existing 1950s ranches sit on the market for long these days.
If you need more than just anecdotal evidence, however, the researchers at CoreLogic, a residential property information, analytics and services provider, have released their February 2014 report showing that single-family home prices in the Dallas-Plano-Irving metropolitan area were up 11.3 percent over the same period last year — enough for a No. 7 ranking nationally. However, that number is down slightly from the 12.2 percent gains seen in January.
In February, Dallas home prices were up 11.3 percent over the same period last year. However, that number is down slightly from January's 12.2 percent.
Across the United States, year-over-year home prices were up 12.2 percent in February. CoreLogic also reports that nationwide home prices have been on the rise for 24 consecutive months.
The company predicts a 10.5 percent year-over-year increase for March, once the numbers are tallied — a bit of a slowdown but certainly still positive.
“As the spring home-buying season kicks off, house price appreciation continues to be strong,” chief economist Mark Fleming said in the report. “Although prices should remain strong in the near term due to a short supply of homes on the market, price increases should moderate over the next year as home equity releases pent-up supply.”
Texas overall experienced a 10.2 percent increase in the housing price index (HPI) in February, and the Houston-Woodlands-Sugar Land area showed impressive gains: 13.6 percent, enough for a No. 4 ranking nationally and higher than the reported 12.7 percent in January.
However, national home prices remain 16.9 percent below the national peak, which occurred in April 2006.
To determine the HPI, CoreLogic looks at price, time between sales, property type, loan type and distressed sales. The CoreLogic HPI is a repeat-sales index that tracks increases and decreases in sales prices for the same single-family homes over time, which provides a more accurate “constant quality” view of pricing trends, as opposed to views of pricing trends based on analysis of all home sales.
