North Texas home prices are likely to zoom ahead this spring.
In 2013, median residential sales prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area were up by about 12 percent.
“The long-term average rate of increase is only about 4.5 percent,” said Dr. James Gaines, economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. “2014 is going to be another year of double digit price increases.”
Gaines spoke Thursday night to a group of local real estate investors. The meeting in Addison was sponsored by Foreclosure Listing Service and Roddy Information Services.
He said the tight housing supply in the D-FW area insures that sales prices will continue to spike.
“Are we going to go into a price bubble? I don’t think we are right now,” Gaines said. “But in the long run these increases are not sustainable – you don’t want them to be.”
This spring and summer should be another frantic year for local builders and real estate agents.
“We are building almost as many houses as we can build – we have almost hit our physical limit,” Gaines said. “The only thing holding back home sale volume right now is inventory.
“We just don’t have enough houses being offered for sale.”
Gaines said in 2013 the D-FW had the second highest volume of home sales ever.
“This year if we can get enough inventory we we’ll do better than that.”
By Steve Brown – Dallas Morning News