Northwest Dallas suburban pre-owned, single-family home sales moved back into positive territory in May with sales of 665 homes, a 1.2 percent increase over the 657 homes sold during the same month the previous year. Except for the previous month, when monthly sales were down a revised 3.2 percent from April sales a year ago, this market has not experienced a monthly year-to-year sales volume decrease since August 2004.

Average per square foot home prices also continued increasing in a slow, but consistent manner. The average $250,000 home sold during the past three months was priced at $90.21 per square foot, up 1.5 percent over the same period a year ago. The per square foot price of the average $350,000 home was $103.40 per square foot, up 2.5 percent over a year ago, and the average $450,000 home was up .7 percent, to $115.24 per square foot. May was the ninth straight month that average per square foot prices of pre-owned, single-family homes sold in the northwest Dallas suburbs showed this kind of an across-the-board increase.

Approximately 2,300 pre-owned homes were listed for sale in Argyle, Bartonville, Coppell, Copper Canyon, Colleyville, Double Oak, Flower Mound, southwest Frisco, Grapevine, Highland Village, Keller, west Plano, Southlake, Trophy Club and Westlake at the end of May. This is about 13.2 percent fewer homes than the approximately 2,650 homes listed a year ago.

With sales up and inventory down, the supply of homes in the area dropped to about a 3.3 months supply. This is down nearly 20 percent from the revised 4.1 months supply of homes available for sale during April, and 17.5 percent less than the 4.0 months supply of homes listed for sale during May last year.

Average days on market for northwest Dallas suburban pre-owned homes also dropped sharply during May, to 50 days. This compares to 66 average days on market during April and 73 days in March. Even more remarkable is the comparison to May 2004 when similar homes were listed for an average of 90 days, about 44 percent longer than this year.

The one possible negative in May's generally positive report on the condition of the Northwest Dallas suburban pre-owned, single-family home market was a drop in the median home price, and even here there is mixed news. While the $269,000 median was 2.2 percent lower than the $274,000 median home price of a year ago, it also was 11.9 percent more than the $240,500 median price posted in May two years ago.

Market Highs And Lows

The two northwest Dallas suburbs home resale market segments with the largest annual increase in average per square foot prices during the past three months were Grapevine homes selling for $400,000 to $499,999 and Highland Village homes selling for between $200,000 and $299,999. The square foot price of an average $350,000 home in Grapevine increased 9.3 percent to $103.55 and the square foot price of an average $250,000 home in Highland Village was $84.07, an increase of 6.9 percent.

Southlake homes selling for between $400,000 and $499,999 was the market segment showing largest price decrease, coming in at $109.42 per square foot, a drop of 4.0 percent from a year ago. The average price per square foot of southwest Frisco homes that sold for between $300,000 and $399,999 averaged $102.23, a 3.7 percent drop from the previous year.