Showing it is not immune to fallout from the national housing market slump, the northwest Dallas suburbs experienced a 28.5 percent drop in previously owned, single family home sales in December. During the same month last year, 418 such homes were sold in the towns covered in this newsletter. This year, sales of only 299 homes have been reported.

Homes sales in this area over the past three months were down 11.7 percent, as compared to sales a year ago. Sales occurring during 2007 were down from previous year sales an even less remarkable 6.5 percent. These too are sizable sale volume decreases, but point out that one month's results do not make a trend.

Probably more ominous for homeowners who want to sell their homes in the near term is that the inventory of previously owned homes listed for sale in the northwest Dallas suburban area jumped to a 6.7 months of sales, moving the market squarely into buyer's market territory. This was a 50.8 percent increase from the 4.4 months supply of homes listed for sale during December last year.

The number of homes available for sale at the end of December was still higher than at the same time the past couple of years, but not by the double-digit percentage same month, year-to-year increases seen between September 2006 through September 2007. According to data compiled by North Texas Real Estate Information Systems Inc., about 1,855 existing homes were listed for sale in these northwest Dallas suburbs, 6.7 percent more than the 1,740 homes listed for sale at the end of December a year ago, but also 25.2 percent higher than the 1,485 homes available for sale at this same point in time two years ago.

Home prices continued to increase modestly. Sale prices of homes sold during December were 2.4 percent higher than a year ago, and November's price increase was revised upward slightly to 1.8 percent.

Appreciation in home values was seen in all price ranges. Compared to homes sold a year ago, the square foot price of a typical $250,000 home sold during the three months ending in December increased by .8 percent, to $94.31. The square foot price of a typical $350,000 home sold was up 2.6 percent, to $105.68, and the price per square foot of the typical $450,000 home increased by .6 percent, to $122.12. The average square foot price of homes selling for less than $200,000 was up 1.4 percent and the square foot price of homes selling for more than $500,000 increased by 1.2 percent.

The average length of time required to sell a pre-owned, single family northwest Dallas suburban home increased during December to 73 days. This is only a 4.3 percent increase over the average 70 days required to sell a home during November, but a 21.6 percent jump from the 60 average days required during December a year ago.

For the first time since March 2006, the median price of pre-owned homes in the area was not higher than median price for the same month of the previous year. The median price of previously owned northwest Dallas suburban homes sold during December was $285,000, same as a year ago.

Market Highs And Lows

The northwest Dallas suburbs with the largest annual increase in their three month average home prices were Trophy Club and Grapevine. The average price increase in Trophy Club was 9.2 percent. Grapevine's average home price was up 6.2 percent.

The northwest Dallas suburbs covered in this newsletter that experienced the largest decreases in their same quarter, year-to-year average home prices again were west Plano and Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak areas. The average price of homes sold in west Plano was down 4.7 percent. The average home price in the Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak area fell 4.5 percent.

Grapevine, with 3.6 months supply of homes listed for sale, had the lowest inventory of pre-owned homes among the northwest Dallas suburbs. Coppell, slipped to the second position with 4.0 months supply of homes available for sale.

With 11.8 months supply of previously owned homes for sale, the Argyle, Bartonville, Copper Canyon and Double Oak area had the largest inventory of homes available for sale. Surprisingly, Southlake had the second highest inventory with 10.1 months supply.


Note to Market Watch Newsletter readers: Since early 2004, the analysis summarized in these newsletters has been based on monthly sales transactions reported though the first half of subsequent months. Over the past year, however, I have noticed that more and more of these transactions are not being reported within this period. This has caused market conditions as initially reported to sometimes be materially incorrect. In an effort to provide both timely and accurate information to the reader of this newsletter, I have decided to wait about three weeks after the end of each month before building the transaction database that I use to analyze market conditions. Though this means the newsletter will be published about a week later than it has been until now, I trust that increased accuracy in my initial reports will justify this delay.