Friday, July 18, 2014

D-FW new home prices soaring thanks to higher costs

Provided By:dallasnews.com




New home prices are soaring in some North Texas neighborhoods, thanks to rising construction costs and higher land prices.

Metrostudy Inc. reported Friday that median new home prices in the Dallas-Fort Worth area have risen 24 percent since 2011 to $269,400 at midyear.

In popular areas, prices have gone up even faster, the housing consultant reports.

New home prices have risen 86 percent in North Dallas, are up 43 percent in Frisco and 36 percent higher in McKinney over the last three years, according to Metrostudy.

“Only 25 percent of the new home closings in the second quarter were for homes priced under $200,000, down from over 40 percent in 2011,” the new report says. “The higher prices are forcing many buyers to the nearby submarkets of Melissa, Anna, Celina, Little Elm, Oak Point and unincorporated areas of Denton and Collin counties.”

Median new home costs in North Texas are now more than a third higher than the median sales price for a preowned single-family home.

 

Metrostudy reports that home starts in the D-FW area were up 2 percent from a year earlier.

“We are expecting a 10 percent to 15 percent increase in starts during 2014, with the largest share of the increase coming from the first quarter,” Metrostudy’s David Brown said.

Metrostudy found that fewer than 3,000 finished available new houses were on the market in North Texas at the end of June. That’s down 12 percent from a year earlier.

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