North Dallas Hosuing Numbers Remain Anemic

Posted on Saturday, February 16, 2008 at 03:09PM by Bill Webb Post a Comment Plano and the surrounding areas had yet another month of declining numbers from last year. Sales for all of North Texas were down 17%. Plano Sales were down 9% and average price unchanged. Interestingly though, the median price was up 8%. Things were worse in Allen and McKinney with Allen posting a30% drop and McKinney a 28% drop. Frisco was able to show a smaller decrease in units (5%) but the area's average price was down 7% and the median price was down 14%. Builder inventories in the Frisco area are probably the reason for the downward pressure on prices. The days on market time for the area was also significantly up. Plano came in at 88 days followed by McKinney at 88, Frisco at 99 and Allen at 111. This compares with all of North Texas at 88 days. New listings were up by 1% in Plano and total listings were up 6% over the previous year. Allen and McKinney both showed a drop in listings for the month versus January of 2007. McKinney was also down 8% in total listings versus a year ago. Frisco showed a small decrease on the monthly listings but were still 12% ahead in total listings from a year ago. North Texas as a whole posted a 9% decrease on monthly new listings and a 1% increase for total listings versus a year ago. We also have a hotness ratio that is provided to us by the North Texas Real Estate Information System. This ratio is obtain by dividing the pending sales for single family homes by the current inventory. With 126 areas reporting, Plano ranked 16th. They were followed by Allen at 19th, Frisco at 70th and McKinney at 71st. This number could give us some clues as to market direction in a more timely manner than just looking at the months of inventory. We will have more on this number in future articles. So, what do we have? Statistically we have a market that is at a crossroads. We are seeing some numbers decline while other numbers stubbornly hold on to a positive bias. For instance sales for the month in Plano are down 9% from a year ago. Months of inventory however is only at 4.1 which is hardly considered a buyer's market. The road that the market chooses will be unveiled in the next few months. interest rates, recession fears, foreclosures and gas prices could all play a part in the direction we take. Regardless of the direction, I do not think we will see the wild swings that we are seeing across the country. Our gut tells us that business has been stronger in February than it was in January. I believe that the statistics will bear me out, We will continue to watch for trends and let you know as soon as they show up. Stay tuned.