After posting a revised 1.7 percent price increase in June, the lowest increase since last December, prices of previously owned, single family homes in the northwest Dallas suburbs sold during July were 2.2 percent higher than the prices similar homes sold during July last year. This market's ability to maintain this level of price increases probably depends mostly on whether the supply of homes available for sale remains at or near current levels. Despite still deteriorating conditions in the national market, there seems to be a reasonable chance this may occur.

On the demand side of this equation, 656 pre-owned, single family home sales in the towns reported on in this newsletter were sold this July, off 6.8 percent from the 704 homes sold during July a year ago. Combined with June's revised 15.0 percent sale volume decrease and May's 7.9 percent decrease, sales for the past quarter are off 10.3 percent.

On the supply side, about 2,500 such homes were listed for sale at the end of July in these northwest Dallas suburbs, according to data compiled by North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc. While this is an 18.3 percent increase over the approximately 2,115 homes that were listed for sale at the same point a year ago, it also is a fairly significant drop from June's 21.6 percent year-to-year increase.

These conditions resulted in a 3.8 months supply of homes being offered for sale in July, an increase of 28.7 percent over the 3.0 months supply of homes available for sale during July last year. Compared to the 43.5 percent increase experienced in June, however, this too is a significant drop.

Appreciation in home values continued to extend, at least to some extent, across all price ranges. Compared to a year ago, the square foot price of a typical $250,000 home in these northwest Dallas suburbs sold during the three months ending in July increased by 2.5 percent, to $96.46. The square foot price of a typical $350,000 home sold was up a mere .1 percent to $106.60, while the price per square foot of the typical $450,000 home increased 3.7 percent, to $122.70. The average square foot price of homes selling for less than $200,000 was up 3.4 percent and the square foot price of homes selling for more than $500,000 was up 2.3 percent.

As would be expected, given the significant increases recently seen in the number of higher priced homes being sold in the area, the median price of pre-owned homes sold during July rose by 9.1 percent, to $312,750.

Homes selling during July remained on the market for an average 46 days, up by about 10 percent from the average 42 days required to sell a home during June.

Market Highs And Lows

The northwest Dallas suburbs with the largest annual increase in their three month average home prices were Grapevine and Trophy Club. The average price increase in Grapevine was 4.8 percent. In Trophy Club, it was 4.7 percent. Southlake was close behind with a 4.5 percent annual increase.

Two of the northwest Dallas suburbs reported on in this newsletter experienced slight decreases in their same quarter, year-to-year average price comparison. Homes in the Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak area were off .4 percent. Southwest Frisco experienced a .1 percent drop.

Coppell had the lowest inventory of pre-owned homes among the northwest Dallas suburbs with 2.3 months supply of homes available for sale. Flower Mound and Southlake tied for the second, each with a 2.5 months supply of homes listed for sale.

Southwest Frisco dropped to last place with 9.3 months supply of previously owned homes for sale. The Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak area had the next highest inventory with 6.7 months supply.