What Does the New Year Hold for the DFW Marketplace?

Dallas Area Housing Trends

According to the statistics, 2017 should be another great year for the DFW area marketplace. Is it better to be a buyer or seller, though?

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Happy New Year! I hope you had a great time with your family over the holidays. Now that 2017 is officially under way, I wanted help you get back into the swing of things with a few predictions on what to expect from the DFW marketplace this year based on what the numbers tell us. Before that, though, I just want to say thank you for your referrals and transactions. Our team had our best year ever last year. We sold tons of homes and handled more volume than ever, and it’s all thanks to you. Keep sending business our way, and we’ll keep taking care of you and yours. So, what’s been happening in the DFW marketplace lately? Ever since the spring of 2012, prices have been going up, and that trend is continuing. Currently, the average price for a residential home is about $275,000, which is up about 6.5% from this time last year. We’re not experiencing the same double-digit increases we did in the past few years, but we’re still seeing some very aggressive price appreciation. The number of properties that have sold over the past year is just under 110,000, which is up 4.3%. As you see, the number of sales are increasing along with the average home price. The average days on market is 42 days, but for our clients, that number is only 19.

The stats don’t lie—now is a great time to buy or sell.

Our list-to-sales price ratio currently stands at 97.2%. That means—on average—sellers are having to negotiate 2.8% off their original asking price. Even though you might be hearing that it’s an overwhelming seller’s market, buyers are still paying less than what sellers are initially asking. For our clients, the list-to-sales price ratio is 101%. Right now, we have about 2.6 months’ worth of inventory, which is down 10.3% over the last year. In light of these numbers, a lot of people have asked me lately if we’re in a real estate bubble. My answer is no, because there’s nothing on the horizon that we’re seeing that could spell doom and gloom for our marketplace. If you’re trying to maximize the gain out of your home sale and time the market, you need to pay attention to the level of inventory. The closer that number is to zero, the hotter the market is for you as a seller. As that number rises, though, the price appreciation we’ve been experiencing will slow down. My personal prediction is that we will continue to see growth in our marketplace in 2017. The stats don’t lie—now is still a great time to both buy and sell a home. For sellers, homes are worth more now than they’ve ever been, and there are more buyers in the market now than we’ve had over the last four years. For buyers, there are more properties on the market, yet inventory continues to stay low, and on top of everything else, interest rates are still very low. If you have any more questions about the DFW real estate market, give us a call, send us an email, or visit us online. Cheers to a very prosperous 2017, and we hope to hear from you soon!