The State of Real Estate

Dallas single-family home prices continue to outpace rest of nation

Good news for Dallas homeowners: Year-over-year single-family home prices are still on the rise, enough to keep us among the top 10 markets in the country. Bad news for Dallas homebuyers: Prices are up, and inventory is down — and it looks like it may be that way for a while.

CoreLogic, a residential property information, analytics and services provider, has released its March 2014 report, which shows that single-family home prices in the Dallas-Plano-Irving metropolitan area were up 11 percent over the same period last year. On a month-over-month basis, home prices increased by 2 percent in March 2014 compared to February 2014.

The Dallas statistic is nearly identical to the 11.1 percent year-over-year home price increase seen nationally in March 2014.

The Dallas statistic is nearly identical to the 11.1 percent year-over-year increase seen nationally during that same time. This marks the 25th consecutive month of year-over-year nationwide home price gains.

However, these numbers are down slightly from those reported in February 2014, when there was an 11.3 percent bump in Dallas home prices and a 12.2 increase across the country. But the March numbers were still good enough to put Dallas in the No. 7 spot nationally.

CoreLogic researchers were slightly concerned by March’s numbers and attribute the increase in home prices to an imbalance in supply and demand.

“March data on new and existing home sales was weaker than expected and is a cause for concern as we enter the spring buying season,” said Dr. Mark Fleming, chief economist for CoreLogic. “Interest rate-disenfranchised potential sellers are adding to the existing shadow inventory, while buyers who can’t find what they want to buy are on the sidelines creating a new kind of ‘shadow demand.’

“This supply and demand imbalance continues to drive home prices higher, even though transaction volumes are lower than expected.”

Added Anand Nallathambi, CoreLogic president and CEO: “In many markets — especially major metro areas like Los Angeles, Atlanta and New York — home prices are being driven up at double-digit rates fueled by a lack of inventory and record levels of cash purchases.”

Back in Texas, CoreLogic reports a 10.3 percent year-over-year increase in the home price index (HPI) across the state. The Houston metro area saw gains of 13.7 percent — enough for a No. 4 ranking nationally.

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.

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Rent Report

Here's how many Texans are paying too much for rent, report reveals

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Millions of Texas renters, both current residents and new arrivals, suffer from wallet whiplash.

A new report from the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers shows 45 percent of the state’s renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Renters occupy more than 4.2 million Texas households, representing nearly half of the state’s residents.

Worse yet, 81 percent of extremely low-income households in Texas spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing, the report says. For that income group, Texas has a shortage of 864,000 affordable homes.

Thirty percent is the standard financial benchmark for spending too much income on rent, while 50 percent puts a renter in the “severely cost-burdened” bucket.

“To sustain growth and secure future prosperity, Texas will need more than 320,000 additional affordable homes [rented and owned] to address workforce housing affordability and meet the demands of a growing population,” says the report.

“Today, the state is creating thousands of new jobs,” the report adds, “but housing supply has not kept pace with demand, driving up housing costs and constraining continued economic growth.”

Not surprisingly, people who live in or move to three of Texas’ biggest metro areas get hit with the state’s highest apartment rental rates. Here’s Apartments.com’s list of the 10 most expensive places for renters in Texas, based on apartments whose average size ranges from 713 square feet in Austin to 771 square feet in Plano:

1. Frisco — $1,477 per month
2. Plano — $1,461 per month
3. Austin — $1,417 per month
4. Dallas — $1,413 per month
5. McKinney — $1,363 per month
6. Grand Prairie — $1,327 per month
7. Irving — $1,318 per month
8. Garland — $1,237 per month
9. Fort Worth — $1,217 per month
10. Houston — $1,183 per month

San Antonio boasts some of the lowest average rent among Texas’ 10 most affordable markets: $1,075 per month. Mesquite, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, also fits into that category, with average monthly rent of $1,052.

Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $114 million in grants to help develop or rehabilitate properties, providing more than 4,400 affordable rental units.

“As our state grows, we must ensure that Texans have access to the affordable housing they need to thrive,” Abbott says.

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