After a small rally in December, the northwest Dallas suburban existing home market again headed south in January. The 223 MLS-listed homes sold in this area was down nearly 11 percent from January a year ago and average length of time required to sell a home soared to 115 days, a 67 percent increase over the average 69 days on market for pre-owned home sold during the previous January.

The inventory of homes available for sale also increased in January to a 9 months supply versus a revised 5.9 months supply of the previous month, but this increase appears to be more a function of weak sales than increasing inventory. The average number of homes for sale in the northwest Dallas suburbs covered in this newsletter rose by less than two percent between the first and last days of January, which is about normal for this time of the year.

It is unclear whether the market conditions that generally have been negative for the past four months are yet having any real impact on the prices at which homes are actually being purchased. In some price ranges, January prices were up slightly from a year ago and in others they were down slightly. The price per square foot of average homes selling for $150,000 and for $450,000 were both up 1.2 percent over a year ago, at $77.87 and $114.59 per square foot, respectively. The per square foot sale price of the average $350,000 home was down 1.3 percent, at $96.93, and the price per square foot of the average $250,000 home dropped 3.1 percent to $84.74.

It still seems more likely than not that the northwest Dallas suburbs housing market now will begin gathering steam as we enter the traditionally higher-volume sales months. Since the market for pre-owned northwest Dallas suburban homes appears to be increasingly influenced by its higher priced segments, as described below, it also seems probable that if seasonally adjusted prices drop at all, the dip will be shallow and short term.

Demand for homes in the higher price ranges continues to be relatively stronger in the northwest Dallas suburbs than for homes in the lower price ranges. One indication of this is the recent almost across-the-board increases in average home prices within the towns in this area. The average sales price of pre-owned homes in Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak during the past three months was $347,200, a price jump of 31.7 percent over the average price of year ago. In Colleyville, the average sales price increased 20.8 percent, to $424,600. In Highland Village, it increased 20.2 percent to $259,500 and Keller experienced an 18.7 percent increase, to $232,200.

The average price of existing Coppell homes during the past three months rose 14.8 percent to $270,100. In Southlake the average sale price rose 8.4 percent to $428,100 and in west Plano it increased 8.1 percent to $549,100. The average price of pre-owned Flower Mound homes is up 5.8 percent to $234,300, and in Trophy Club it increased 3.8 percent to $198,700. Southwest Frisco had the only average sale price drop, a 15.1 percent decrease to $357,600. Overall, the average sales price in these towns was up 13 percent, to $322,700.

This relative strength of the market for higher priced homes in the northwest Dallas suburbs is confirmed by the increase in the number of these homes being sold. During the past three months, 128 homes sold for $500,000 and above, a whopping 71 percent over the 75 homes sold in this area during the same period a year ago. In the $200,000 to $299,999 price range, 252 homes were sold, a 4 percent increase, and in the $400,000 to $499,000 price range, 76 homes were sold, a 3 percent increase. In the less than $200,000 market segment, 260 homes were sold, a 19 percent drop from a year ago. In the $300,000 to $399,999 price range 144 homes were sold, 12 percent fewer homes than a year ago.

New davedowns.com Web Site Now Up and Running

In early February, a totally reworked and greatly expanded davedowns.com was published on the Internet. Like this newsletter, the geographical coverage of the web site has expanded from south Denton County to the significantly larger northwest Dallas suburbs area and the number of pages on the site more than tripled. Additionally, the appearance of the pages and the site navigation approach are completely different.

If you have not yet visited the new site, please take a look and let me know what you think.