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Dallas Real Estate Blog
Is it time to start buying foreclosures in Dallas?Contributed by DTRE on June 23, 2009 Despite a further 5% drop in median home sales prices in Dallas-Forth Worth in the first quarter of 2009, foreclosed homes are not being seen as a bargain. More than 30% of potential buyers think that prices have further to fall and buying a foreclosed home now could see the house continue to lose value. A report by the National Association of Realtors reported that 70% of renters interviewed expressed an interest in looking at foreclosed homes with the intention of buying. With more than 30,000 homes in Dallas Fort Worth being posted for foreclosure in the six months to May 2009, there is likely to be plenty of choice for bargain hunters in the near future. Similar Postings: Which Dallas neighborhoods have the most foreclosures? San Antonio homeowners struggle with mortgage payments Comments: 0 Dallas Prepares for Twister SeasonContributed by DTRE on June 14, 2009 Dire warnings that Dallas is long overdue for a major tornado do not seem to convince homeowners to construct their own storm shelters. Dallas is well within ‘Tornado Alley’, where dry northerly air meets moist air from the Gulf giving the unstable conditions which spawn twisters. While Dallas City Emergency Management has response planning for such a disaster, the American Red Cross is committed to providing food and emergency housing for a possible 40,000 residents who may be left homeless after a major tornado. Aiming to complete their ambitious preparations by late 2011, the Red Cross still needs to train 11,000 more volunteers and identify more community buildings which could be used as temporary shelters. Similiar postings: Home Warranty Insurance 7 steps to increase the life expectancy of your home Comments: 0 Westlake leads Dallas Neighborhoods for Resales in Q1 of 2009Contributed by DTRE on June 9, 2009 Latest reports for the first quarter home resales show the highest number of sales in Dallas were in expensive Westlake neighborhood , whilst the lowest number were in Wilmer-Hutchins. However, Wilmer-Hutchins also showed houses remained on the market for the least number of days while North Dallas homes remained on the market for much longer. The biggest percentage change in house prices has been recorded once again in Westlake and price reductions were less drastic in central Oak Lawn. All in all, prices continue to drop, making Dallas a buyer’s market for those looking to invest in property. Comments: 0 Dallas Homeowners can sell surplus solar powerContributed by DTRE on May 28, 2009 Solar panels have been popular in the southern states for many years for heating swimming pools, but in the race to develop greener energy, progress is developing fast. Solar energy customers can now sign up for a program with Green Mountain Energy Co. to sell their surplus solar energy generated and receive excellent retail rates. When home solar panels generate more power than the homeowner can use, the excess power simply flows onto the grid. Retail prices are paid for the first 500 kilowatt hours per month sold to Green Mountain Energy, at last making solar panels return the initial investment in double-quick time. Similar Postings: How Do You Pass a Building Inspection with New Green Systems in Your Home Comments: 1 New Homes Sales Down in Dallas in 4Q 2008Contributed by DTRE on April 11, 2009 The last quarter of 2008 saw a 30% dip in new home sales, as reported by the Dallas Morning News. This 30% number sounds alarmingly high, so it's important to note that it is in reference to the "number" of new home sales in the area, not the average "price" of home sales over the noted time period. This is important to note, as there are a number of factors that are included in a trend like this. The first ingredient is that with the current economic crisis, fewer people are looking and buying new homes and are content to wait out the down times. The other important factor is that capital from banks and lenders is much harder to come by, which leads to fewer projects flooding the market. To that point, the trend could feed itself, as one expected impact of this downturn is that local home builders are scaling back their new construction projects which could further amplify the trend. Read the article here. Comments: 0 Dallas Suburbs and Exurbs Continuing to GrowContributed by DTRE on September 13, 2008 How far north can we go? The suburb sprall of Dallas continues to extend further and further north as the years go by. Richardson to Plano to Allen to McKinney...there never seems to be an end to the Dallas suburbs. And now we're starting to see growth in the 'exburbs'. The Bond Buyer has an interesting article about exurb growth in Rockwall County. For those not familiar with the term, 'exurbs' refers to surrounding areas that are technically further out than the suburbs...which there is admittedly a large grey area for Dallas, as the suburbs continue to extend further north. Comments: 2 Dallas Condo Market Struggling. Did you see it coming?Contributed by DTRE on August 3, 2008 It seems like it had to happen at some point. Despite the national real estate market downturn, the Dallas market has been able to remain relatively unscathed compared to some west coast markets. That said, one had to wonder if the local metroplex market could continue to support the massive amount of condo and townhome development in Uptown and downtown Dallas, and as the real estate market continues to struggle, the Dallas condo market is finally starting to feel the pain. The Dallas Morning News reported on Friday that some builders have turned what were planned as for sale units into rentals after seeing lack of market response. With a number of units still open in new developments, other planned developments have been postponed or cancelled. The article goes on to say, "condo sales have been the hardest hit sector of the local real estate market" with sales of condos and townhomes down by nearly a quarter year over year, citing subprime mortgages as part of the problem. And with mortgage rates up, the cost of ownership is up. Read the Dallas Morning News article. Comments: 1 Dallas home market "arguably" still going strongContributed by DTRE on May 19, 2008 The Chicago Tribune had an interesting article yesterday that described Dallas "arguably the most stable housing market in the country". While this might pain a picture of a booming market, given the decline across the country, everything is relative. The article details how home sales are actually down 15 percent versus the amount of sales a year ago and says prices could drop another 8 to 14 percent before the market bottoms out. The most interesting part of the article to us was the following: "Consumers expect more today and they expect more than they did last year and more than the year before," said Google executive Justin McCarthy. "They expect more content and more of it to be free." Of course, DTRE is all about free content, so we're glad to hear experts see the importance of this trend! Read the full article here. Comments: 1 New Dallas Real Estate Interactive Listings MapContributed by DTRE on April 6, 2008 DTRE is proud to announce a completely re-designed Dallas Real Estate Listings section with an interactive map that includes home location as well as neighborhood boundaries. As shown below, the properties will be listed on left (pulled from Google Base), and then automatically populated into our interactive map on the right-hand side of the page. If you click on one of the properties, the map will immediately re-center to show that particular listing and have a pop-up with pertinent information.  We have also improved the search functionality to help you find the exact homes that you are interested in. For instance, if you only want to see Dallas Foreclosures just choose Foreclosures from the listings type drop down. We have also added the ability to narrow your search to Dallas, Irving, Fort Worth, and Arlington. Here is a pre-sorted search for Forth Worth Real Estate Listings. As always, please feel free to drop us an email and let us know what you think. Comments: 0 Home Prices Drawing People to DallasContributed by DTRE on March 27, 2008 The AP reported that between July 2006 and July 2007 Dallas-Fort Worth added more new residents than any other metro area in the country. Apparently Dallas added over 160k new residents during said period. The article states competitive home prices as a key reason for the shift: Experts credit much of the growth in the South to relatively strong local economies and housing prices that are among the most affordable in the U.S. "People are running away from unaffordable housing, from the economic slowdown," said Karl Eschbach, a state demographer in Texas. "I would expect Texas to stay at the top of a slowing game." The article goes on to talk about how Texas suburbs offer a size (sq ft) to price ratio that is just hard to find in other parts of the country. Case in point are our Dallas suburbs...why build small when you can just go further north? Texas actually boasts four of the top 10 jumps in the country, with Houston, San Antonio, and Austin all making large gains. Check out the full article here. Comments: 1 Dallas Economy in ExpansionContributed by DTRE on March 6, 2008 We've talked before about how the Dallas real estate market seems to be doing well despite the broader US market issues. DFW home sale prices gained in the 4th quarter and Dallas was cited as one of the least likely cities to see drops in home prices. All good news for the local market. This week USA Today published an interesting article that might provide some commentary on why Dallas (and other Texas real estate markets like Houston) are weathering the storm. The article takes to issue the idea that we're looking at a national recession (that it's more isolated to local pockets throughout the country) and shows a map of which states are in a recession mode versus an expansion state. The map shows both Texas and Dallas in an expansion state. Texas had one of the better gains in home prices last year at 5.2% on average. Utah saw the highest gains at 9.3% and Wyoming had the biggest fall at -8.3%. Comments: 0 Foreclosure Bus Tours Becoming Popular in the Dallas AreaContributed by DTRE on February 26, 2008 There have been several articles about how some local agents have begun giving bus tours of local foreclosures. Dallas' local NBC station has a video feature of the story. According to a different article about the same topic, apparently it was an idea that originated in California a year ago amongst agents looking to make ends meet in a down market. This new model was surely brought on by the fact that foreclosures were up 75% last year...sometimes down times can lead to creative inspiration and new business models. As they say- necessity is the mother of invention! Comments: 1 DFW home sale prices see slight gain in 4Q07Contributed by DTRE on February 17, 2008 The Dallas Morning News reported that sale prices of homes in the Dallas-Fort Worth area rose by 0.5% in the 4th quarter of 2007. We've posted before about how Dallas has done well in a down real estate market, so this is definitely good news for the area. While 0.5% might seem like a neglidgible gain, in comparisson, prices dropped by almost 6% on national average with some areas seeing as much as a double digit drop (read the article for more details), so all things considered, this is a good sign for the local market. Another interesting item was that Dallas condo prices were up nearly 5% which should speak to the question of if local Dallas condos are a good investment. Comments: 1 CNN says foreclosures were up 75% in 2007Contributed by DTRE on January 29, 2008 No wonder people want to know how to find foreclosures in Dallas...CNN reported today that foreclosures were up by 75% in 2007. The subprime crunch combined with dropping home prices and fewer home sales has proved to be a lethal combination. The report goes on to say that more than 1% of the homes in the US were in some state of foreclosure during the year. Unfortunately the article reads like a 'bad to worse' scenario. Hopefully the recent Fed rate cuts will slow this momentum in '08. Read about how the rate cuts might affect your mortgage on our partner Houston site. Comments: 1 Dallas says goodbye to the Hard RockContributed by DTRE on January 20, 2008 The building that previously housed the Dallas Hard Rock Cafe (which was closed about a year ago) in Uptown on McKinney Ave was bulldozed this weekend. This lays rest to the rumor that it was going to be converted into a Real World Dallas house for the MTV reality show. The property was bought by a real estate developer and there are no public plans about what will be built in this prime location. A news report claimed that the final decision to tear down the Hard Rock came when it failed to be approved by the city as a historic building...not because it was the Hard Rock but because it was built in the 1920s! Comments: 0 |
Recent Blog Posts...Is it time to start buying foreclosures in Dallas? Comments: 0 Dallas Prepares for Twister Season Comments: 0 Westlake leads Dallas Neighborhoods for Resales in Q1 of 2009 Comments: 0 Dallas Homeowners can sell surplus solar power Comments: 1 New Homes Sales Down in Dallas in 4Q 2008 Comments: 0 Dallas Suburbs and Exurbs Continuing to Grow Comments: 2 Dallas Condo Market Struggling. Did you see it coming? Comments: 1 Dallas home market "arguably" still going strong Comments: 1 New Dallas Real Estate Interactive Listings Map Comments: 0 Home Prices Drawing People to Dallas Comments: 1 Archive:3Q 2009 2Q 2009 1Q 2009 3Q 2008 2Q 2008 1Q 2008 3Q 2007 2Q 2007 1Q 2007 Other Blogs:Houston Real Estate Blog |
