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TMCNet: Dallas-Fort Worth new-home sales continue to slide

[July 09, 2008]

Dallas-Fort Worth new-home sales continue to slide

(Dallas Morning News, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jul. 9--New-home sales in the Dallas-Fort Worth area continued to dive in the second quarter -- down almost a third from a year ago.

With only 6,658 closings, it was the lowest quarterly home sales total in a decade.

And starts of new homes were off about 30 percent from second quarter 2007, according to local building stats released Tuesday by Metrostudy Inc.

The sharp decline in home starts has helped reduce the number of unsold new houses on the D-FW market, said Metrostudy analyst David Brown.

About 8,200 finished and vacant new homes were counted in the second quarter -- down from a peak of more than 12,000 in early 2007.

"Inventory is not a major issue here like we are seeing in some markets," Mr. Brown said. "By the end of this year that inventory number should look really good because builders have remained constrained.

"They are really focused about getting that down."

In the second quarter, builders began work on 6,162 single-family homes, according to Metrostudy.

The pace of home construction in the D-FW area is less than half what it was at the peak of the market, said Mark Dotzour, an economist with Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center.

"My guess is that we will see the bottom of the single-family homebuilding cycle in the Dallas metro area between now and next summer, because I think that banks and construction lenders are going to be very reluctant to make construction and development loans in the challenging environment of the financial services sector," Dr. Dotzour said.

About half of the starts in the most recent quarter were for homes priced under $200,000.

The median price of new houses was $203,000 -- up 7 percent from a year ago. But that reflects what's being sold, not an increase in prices, Mr. Brown said.

"Closings of homes priced under $200,000 declined the most due to the tightened credit market," he said.

While the D-FW economy is growing at one of the best rates in the country, getting consumers to commit to a housing buy can be tough now, Mr. Brown said.

"Right now the consumer is caught between $4 gas and watching their 401(k) drop in value and hearing about recession -- their confidence is getting beat up," he said.

Tuesday's quarterly new-home sales report comes just a day after the latest statistics for the pre-owned housing market showed a 20 percent decline in sales in North Texas in June.

Sales of pre-owned homes are down 15 percent and sales of new homes are off 32 percent comparing the first six months of the year with the first half of 2007.

To see more of The Dallas Morning News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.dallasnews.com.

Copyright (c) 2008, The Dallas Morning News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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