Dallas a buyers' market
City one of 11 nationally where home prices dropped last quarter
dallasnews.com
11:47 PM CST on Monday, November 15, 2004
By STEVE BROWN / The Dallas Morning News
U.S. home prices continued to soar in the third quarter, rising almost 8 percent.
But in the Dallas area, median home resale prices fell by 1.6 percent. Dallas was one of only 11 U.S. cities with declining home prices, according to a report released Monday by the National Association of Realtors.
While other big cities are seeing runaway appreciation, many Texas markets have small or no price increases. Houston's median home price fell by 1.2 percent in the third quarter, and prices in Austin rose by less than a half-percent.
"In the relatively small number of markets where prices were down slightly, there was some local economic weakness from a soft labor market, an unusually large supply of homes available for sale or both," Realtors' economist David Lereah reported. "However, none of these areas had experienced rapid price growth, and we see no evidence of price bubbles."
The median home price in the Dallas area was $140,300, compared with $188,500 nationally.
Almost four dozen U.S. cities had dramatic double-digit price increases during the period.
The biggest price spike was in Las Vegas, with an almost 54 percent jump from a year ago, the largest such increase ever recorded for a U.S. city, according to the group.
Corpus Christi had the greatest increase among Texas cities, at 7.8 percent.
"Although home prices have risen faster than incomes over the last three years, for much of the '80s and '90s, the reverse was true," Al Mansel, president of the Realtors' association, said. "To a certain extent, we've been experiencing some catch-up."
The Realtors predict that home prices around the country will go up only about 5 percent in 2005. |
