Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

Tax credit fuels skyrocketing Dallas-area preowned home sales

12:08 PM CST on Monday, December 7, 2009
By STEVE BROWN/ The Dallas Morning News


The North Texas housing market came roaring back in November. Preowned home sales rose by 31 percent last month from a year ago – one of the biggest such increases on record. Also Online

Interactive map: Dallas-area home sales and prices

And median home sales prices were up 5 percent.

The big jump in residential transactions came as large numbers of homebuyers rushed to take advantage of the federal home buying tax credit, which has been extended.

Real estate agents in October sold almost 5,500 preowned homes through their multiple listing service, according to statistics released Monday by the North Texas Residential Information Systems and the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

And condo and townhouse sales were up more than 60 percent from a year ago.

November’s robust sales activity is the latest in a string of recent indicators, which show that the North Texas home market has bottomed out and is turning the corner.

Through the first 11 months of 2009, North Texas home sales are down 12 percent from the same period of last year. And median home sales prices are unchanged year to day from 2008.

November was the second consecutive month that Dallas-Fort Worth area home sales rose from the previous year – ending more than a year of consecutive declines.

Some neighborhoods that weren’t impacted by the federal homebuying incentives saw dramatic spikes in home sales last month.

In the Park Cities, preowned home sales soared 81 percent in November from a year ago.

Sales in close in North Dallas neighborhoods rose 48 percent.

And at the end of November, the inventory of unsold homes on the market fell below 6 months which is considered a balanced market.