North Texas home sales set record in 2019

In December, 9,056 houses changed hands, the highest total on record for the final month of any year.

North Texas’ housing market ended 2019 on a high note, and the jump in sales during the final month was enough to push the year’s home purchases to an all-time high.

Last month’s preowned home sales were up 15% compared with December 2018.

Area real estate agents sold more than 108,000 single-family homes for the year — 3% more than in 2018, according to preliminary data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

“Dallas-Fort Worth winds up with record sales again,” said James Gaines, chief economist for the Real Estate Center. “The Dallas side of the Metroplex was actually a little better than Fort Worth.”

In December, 9,056 houses changed hands, the highest total on record for the final month of any year.

Lower mortgage rates in the second half of 2019 boosted homebuying in the D-FW area and across the country after a slowdown in purchases early last year.

“One of the things that helped was that the fourth quarter of 2018 was a down quarter because interest rates went up, oil prices were down and things slowed down,” Gaines said. “October, November and December numbers looked extraordinarily good on a year-over-year basis.

“The fourth quarter was enough that it made up for some of the slowdown that started earlier in the year.”

Along with the higher sales in December, median single-family home prices in the area were up 5% year over year to $270,000. For all of 2019, North Texas home prices were 3% ahead of those in 2018, according to the Real Estate Center.

At the end of the year, 20,535 houses were listed with real estate agents in the more than two dozen North Texas counties included in the survey. That’s a 4% decline in inventory from the end of 2018.

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There are indications that January will be another strong month for North Texas home purchases.

The number of pending sales — properties under contract but not yet closed — is up 18% from a year ago.

Gaines said he doesn’t expect the big home sales gains to continue through the new year.

“We won’t see those percentage rates going forward,” he said. “I don’t think we are going to see those double-digit rates of increase.”

Home prices in North Texas have risen more than 60% in the past 10 years.

Looking ahead, Gaines said it’s unrealistic to expect the same kinds of home market growth moving forward.

“The decade of the 20-teens was an exceptional decade for Texas and D-FW in particular,” he said. “As we look forward to the decade of the 2020s, it would be unrealistic to expect us to duplicate that rate of growth.

“It’s not that we won’t grow. It’s just not going to be a very high rate of prosperity.”