Dallas Housing Market Ends 2006 on Downturn

The Dallas-Fort Worth housing market ended 2006 with another month of declines.

Sales in December were down 5 percent from a year earlier, while prices were 2 percent lower, according to statistics released Monday by the North Texas Real Estate Information System.

“December results look like a continuation of the pattern we have seen all year – home sales generally lower than last year and prices flat to slightly higher,” said real estate agent Bob Edmonson of Allie Beth Allman & Associates.

December was the seventh consecutive month of lower pre-owned home sales in North Texas. Overall, sales were down around 5 percent for the year, as Texas mortgage seekers are waiting for prices to fall even more before applying.

It was the fourth consecutive month that home prices were down from the previous year.

Some of the largest sales declines in 2006 were centered in homes priced under $150,000, where buyers were affected more by higher mortgage rates. Sales of high-priced homes continued to rise in 2006: The number of homes sold for $1 million or more increased 18 percent.

With pending home sales running about 6 percent higher than this time last year, sales agents are closely watching to see if the market moves higher in 2007.

“We Realtors are an optimistic lot, and January always marks the beginning of the spring market,” Mr. Edmonson said.

Industry analysts say it’s too early to tell whether 2007 will be a better year for the Texas housing market.

“January and February will probably still have some decline – normal cyclicality,” said Jim Gaines, an economist with Texas A&M University’s Real Estate Center. “By March and April, expect an uptick. If not, Dallas may have a rough 2007, but I don’t think it will.”

At the end of December, 41,598 pre-owned single-family homes were on the market in North Texas, 9 percent more than a year earlier. On average, it took 76 days to sell a house – up slightly from 2005.

But the area still has less than a six-month supply of homes to sell, which is considered healthy. Other regions have experienced far more troublesome, decreased home mortgage loan activity.

And with a median price of less than $150,000, Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the most affordable big-city markets in the country.

Jim Fite, president of Dallas-based Century 21 Judge Fite Co., said gross sales commissions at his company were up in 2006.

“We ended up having a very good year,” Mr. Fite said. “I’m very happy compared with what’s going on around the rest of the country.”