Dallas Fort Worth Area Homes and Real Estate

Interactive Map Showing Dallas/Fort Worth Area Home Prices and Statistics for 3rd Quarter of 2009

The Dallas Morning News published an interactive map today showing the performance of the Dallas / Fort Worth area real estate market for the third quarter of 2009 compared to the second quarter of 2009.  This interactive map, broken down into the various MLS numbered areas, shows various data about home values and the Dallas real estate market, including:

• The number of home sales.
• The percentage change in the number of sales compared to the previous year.
• The median home price.
• The percentage change of median home price compared to the previous year.
• The median number of days on the market.
• The median price per square foot.

Their source for this data was the North Texas Real Estate Information Service, which is the company that manages the MLS system that all realtors use to input home listings and home sales prices.   It's important to note that some of these numbered MLS areas overlap into different cities and parts of town. 

This data does not include homes that have sold "by owner", nor does it include home prices of homes that were "Z'd out" in MLS by home buyers and sellers.  "Z'd Out" is a term used by real estate agents when the sales price of a home was not disclosed in MLS.  Texas is a non-disclosure state, which means that a buyer and seller can opt-out of publicly disclosing the sales price of a home in the MLS system if they both agree. 

THE NUMBER OF HOME SALES IN THE D/FW AREA

• While it appears that every single area had a decrease in home sales compared to the previous year, some areas fared better than others.  Frisco showed only a 4% decrease in the number of home sales, while Far North Dallas, Westlake and Kaufman county only saw single digit declines.
• The highest percentage decrease in home sales were the Wilmer-Hutchins area, followed by the Park Cities and Sunnyvale area.  All three had a decrease of greater than 30%.  The Grapevine area also posted a 28% decrease.

THE MEDIAN HOME PRICE IN THE D/FW AREA

• Some areas of the D/FW area actually had either small increases or saw no change in the median home price from Q3 2008 compared to Q3 2009.  Overall, Westlake showed the largest increase in median home price at 14%, followed by Duncanville at 7%, while Arlington and Ellis County showed median home price increases of 4% and 3% respectively. Cedar Hill, Garland, Richardson, Wylie, Euless and Denton County all increased by a modest 1%.  Areas that posted saw no percentage change included Far North Dallas, Northeast Dallas, Colleyville and Grapevine. 
• Areas that saw modest price declines of only 1% were The Colony, Northwest Dallas, Grand Prairie.  The Sachse-Rowlett area dropped by 2%.  The highest drops in median home price included Wilmer-Hutchins, which dropped by 35%, Oak Lawn and Southeast Dallas, which saw decreases of 23% and 17% respectively, as well as North Dallas and Park Cities, which both saw declines of 13%.  The declines in Wilmer-Hutchins and Southeast Dallas were likely due to the high number of foreclosures and general oversupply of homes, whereas North Dallas and Park Cities likely decreased because of the lack of financing available at their median home price range, which is generally above both the Fannie Mae conforming loan limit, as well as the FHA loan limit for this area.  Oak Lawn likely suffered because of declining prices in some condos, as well as some of the areas priced above the loan limit for traditional financing.

Overall, the Dallas real estate market is still performing very well compared to many of the bubble states, such as California, Nevada, Arizona and Florida, which saw enormous inflation in real estate values for many years in the late 1990's and early to mid 2000's.  Although prices in many areas of Dallas did post increases during these same periods, the median home price to median income ratio never rose to levels anywhere close to the bubble states. 

While this data can be very useful, it does not tell the whole story.  Real estate values can fluctuate significantly even between individual neighborhoods and subdivisions.  Ultimately, appraisers determine market value by the sales price of comparable homes that have sold within a short distance from the subject property within the last three to six months.  The individual characteristics of a home, as well as the specific market demand in the neighborhood, have a significant impact on the appraisal value of a home. 

DALLAS MORNING NEWS INTERACTIVE REAL ESTATE MAP