The largely pandemic-driven housing market frenzy that gripped the Dallas-Fort Worth area for about a year hasn't just cooled down. It's over, according to real estate experts, an area television news station reported last week.
The market was pretty wild, with prices surging to more than $350,000 for the first time ever while mortgage rates hit historic lows of less than 3%, 21 CBS DFW said in a Thursday, Dec. 2 news story. At the same time, pandemic-driven low supply and new residents looking for a home combined to create what turned out to be a temporarily tight housing market in the DFW area.
That's over now, Dr. Luis Torres, a research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M who specializes in real estate economics, regional economics and macroeconomics, said in the story.
"And now, months of inventory are slowly increasing, listings are increasing, days on market are increasing," Torres said. "So, that broad range of indicators are telling you that, yes, you've reached a peak of the frenzy and now you are going back to normal more levels."
Torres studies the state's economy and real estate markets, in addition to researching national and worldwide economies, according to his bio at Texas A&M. He has developed regional indicators to measure the industry's economic activity and forecast housing and commercial markets. Torres also oversees the research center's publications, including Texas Housing Insight, Outlook for the Texas Economy, Texas Border Economy, Texas Employment Report and Texas Quarterly Apartment Report.
What the north Texas housing market is doing now is far more healthy and sustainable than was its peak of earlier this year, when values increased 20%. The current 5% value increases, which the Dallas-Fort Worth housing market hasn't yet dropped into, are far more manageable, while mortgage lending rates also are going up.
"The lower rates that we saw, that fueled the frenzy, are behind us," Torres said. "We're going to go up to higher mortgage rates going forward."
The big take away, Torres said, is to "expect the unexpected," cautioning that not everything can be forecasted.
"But also, I think all things come to an end. That's the other thing that I think you should understand. You can't achieve those levels of growth forever."
