AUGUST 2021 DALLAS REAL ESTATE MARKET UPDATE
We will start with interest rates.
They are still below 3% and the average for a 30-year fixed rate mortgage is currently 2.87% with .7% in fees and points. The 15-year fixed rate remains almost historically low at 2.15%. So if you’re looking to refinance, renovate, or purchase a new home, borrowing money is cheap right now.
So let’s dig into the data for July and see how the market performed.
For this local market data, I use numbers from single-family home sales in Dallas County. These numbers are based on sales data from July.
The average sales price is at $495,831. That’s a 15.3% increase from one year ago but it’s a drop from our high of $525,949 in May.
The number of homes for sale is 2,374 homes. We are down 41.6% in the number of homes available to buy in Dallas County.
We had 1,951 sales in July, a 20.7% decrease over last year.
Homes sold 56.8% faster in July than they did last year, and we averaged just 16 days on the market before a house goes under contract.
Our months of inventory went up just a hair from 1.1 months of supply in June to now having 1.3 months of supply. This number tells us that based on current demand, if no new listings came on the market, it would take a little over a month for all of the current inventory to be purchased.
We listed 2,573 homes in July which is 1% more than last year.
Our average sales price per square foot bumped back up to match our record-setting May and we are now at an average of $204 per square foot, an 18.6% increase from the same time last year.
I’m adding a little more to this update because at the beginning of the video I talked about the back-to-school lull we typically hit this time of year. So to see where the market is going, I’m comparing the time on market for active listings to listings that are pending sale. Since solds tell us what happened about 30-45 days ago, looking at the properties that have gone under contract most recently help us see more current trends.
Okay, we’re currently trending an average of 40 days on the market for active listings in Dallas County. For sales that are pending sale but haven’t closed, the average days on market is 19 days before going under contract. And keep in mind for July the average days on market before going under contract was 16 days. This tells me we are going up a little bit. Because homes that sold in July went under contract in June. Those averaged 16 days on the market. Homes that went under contract in July averaged 19 days on the market. Homes that are currently for sale are averaging 40 days on the market. Now this is still amazing for sellers but we are starting to see homes sit a little longer.
What’s also important to note is the average sales price to list price is down the lowest it has been in the past 3 months. Homes sold for an average of 1.8% over list price in July.
The Takeaway
These numbers don’t surprise me. While I can’t say for sure if it’s because of the start of school or because buyers are just tired right now, but the hockey-stick market growth is turning and that’s some good news for buyers. And for those who have been worried that we’re in a bubble, these soft corrections are evidence that we’re not in for a crash.