The Dallas-Fort Worth real estate market has been very hot in recent years, but the real estate industry says recent trends indicate the market may be cooling.
The intense competition in North Texas and across the state to buy a home was due to a low home inventory, causing buyers to buy quickly and well above asking price.
“The craziest thing I’ve heard is someone offering to give the seller an RV if they would accept their offer,” said Shana Acquisto, a real estate agent who owns Acquisto Real Estate and president-elect of the Collin County Association of Realtors is.
She says these situations are not as common these days as the market shifts due to higher interest rates and more available inventory.
“The market is cooling off a bit, but I’m not panicking at all. I think the rate hike is good and it’s doing what it’s supposed to do, which is to stabilize and cool down our market, it was just out of control,” Acquisto said.
She said the competitiveness of the past two years has made it difficult for buyers who have not been able to participate in the bidding wars.
“Unfortunately, it put a lot of buyers out of the market where we’re now seeing more buyers have another opportunity to come back in and not be as competitive,” Acquisto said. “So it gives people more options to secure a home.”
The Collin County Association of Realtors’ August market report says sellers were open to negotiations and bids below their original listing price for the first time since January 2021.
“What this market means now is that it presents a better opportunity for buyers. You may not see multiple listings and bidding wars for every property real estate agents at DFW for 21 years.
She recently sold a home for a client at Valley Ranch in Irving that was on the market for just a week.
“I listed this house, we sold it in the first week, but typical of the current trend, we didn’t get many offers,” Boulton said. “We received a very good offer and sold it just above list price within a week.”
“We found that the market has really gotten back to what it was years ago and despite that we thought we had a good deal to sell,” said Thaddeus Clavo, Boulton’s client who recently sold his home. “
Boulton said when it comes to homes in the $300,000-$400,000 range, she still sees a lot of competition as that has become a standard number for homes in DFW.
“Our sales have gone down, but house prices have not necessarily gone down. So we’ve set a new market standard in our region and I don’t see a step backwards or vice versa,” Acquisto said.
The report also states that homeowners in Collin County paid a median selling price of $528,399, up 20.1% from a year ago. Also, homes for sale stayed on the market for about 24 days and sold at 97.9% of the original list price. A year ago in August the houses were on the market for about 2 weeks.
“We never have a crystal ball, but many economists are saying prices will still go up, just not at the crazy rate they’ve been for the past two years,” Boulton said.
She believes the market is gradually normalizing rather than slowing down. Homes are still going fast, but with more inventory out there, the days when sellers expect offers well above the asking price are gone for now.
“I think the properties that’ve been there a little longer is because the sellers may not have fully adjusted to the shift in market dynamics and they’re priced a bit high,” Boulton said.
In Collin County, the August real estate report said buyers had 77.3% more inventory to choose from year-over-year and there were enough homes for 2.3 months, up 107.3% year-over-year. A six month supply of houses for sale is considered a balanced market.
“As you can see, more homes are coming into stock, which means more opportunities for buyers. And we’re seeing some price drops because if a seller needs to sell, they need to do something to attract a buyer,” Acquisto said.
Overall, brokers believe the market is still strong and continues to grow, but just at a different rate than in recent years.
