DFW-Area Homes Gain $55 billion in Value in 2015

With the big price gains, Dallas-Fort Worth area homes have increased about $55 billion in value this year, according to a new report by Zillow.com.  A just-released study by the Internet home marketing firm estimates that DFW homes are worth $411 billion – up from $356 billion a year ago. That’s a gain of more than 15 percent. Nationwide, Zillow estimates that the U.S. housing stock is worth $28.5 trillion, up from $27.5 trillion at the end of 2014.  “This reminds us of the large role housing plays in the overall economy,” said Zillow Chief Economist Svenja Gudell. “Total home value growth slowed this year, but there was still a significant increase in overall value, and many markets are more valuable than they’ve ever been.  “Americans are spending a lot of money on housing, and that will make affordability an important issue next year.”

-          Dallas Morning News, December 30, 2015

Brinkmann Ranch – 500 New Homes – Begins in Frisco

The historic Brinkmann Ranch in frisco

Brinkmann Ranch –  500 New Homes – Begins in Frisco

More Homes to Follow

The sale of a key Frisco property will bring a new neighborhood with hundreds of homes, the first of potentially thousands of new homes to Frisco.  Plano-based homebuilder John Landon said Monday that he has bought part of the 3,500-acre Brinkmann Ranch – one of the largest undeveloped properties in Frisco.   Landon bought about 200 acres on the east side of the ranch on Coit Road.  His Landon Homes plans to begin construction soon on the new neighborhood.   “Landon also has an option to buy more property at Brinkmann Ranch.  The sprawling property located between Preston and Coit roads has for years been one of the most sought after development sites in Collin County.  Owner Baxter Brinkmann has been working with the City of Frisco to plan the property for multiple uses.

-          Dallas Morning News, February 24, 2015

A New 39-story Condo High Rise in the Arts District

      

The new 39-story condo next to Museum Tower    David Weekley InTown at 3 Locations

A New 39-story Condo High Rise in the Arts District

A 39-story tower planned for downtown Dallas’ Arts District will contain luxury apartments, artist lofts and retail space at Flora and Olive streets.   Developers will build a 39-story residential tower on one of the last vacant sites in the downtown Dallas Arts District.  The project at Flora and Olive streets is right next door to the Museum Tower and a block south of Klyde Warren Park.    The development will have 370 luxury apartments, 39 artists’ lofts and about 12,000 square feet of ground-floor retail space on the one-acre site between the Nasher Sculpture Center and the Meyerson Symphony Center.  “It’s a dense, urban project,” said Dallas architect Graham Greene, one of the partners in the project. “We took our inspiration from what has been done in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco in their downtowns.   “It helps complete the Arts District — we have storefront retail all along Flora,” Greene said. “It adds a population of 400 to 500 residents, which is huge.”   Construction begins fourth quarter 2015.

-          Dallas Morning News, February 25, 2015

Home Prices Rise by 10.5 Percent Year Over Year in April

CoreLogic Reports Home Prices Rise by 10.5 Percent Year Over Year in April

 

June 03, 2014, Irvine, Calif. –

—––CoreLogic HPI Forecast Indicates National Home Prices Are Expected to Rise by 6.3 Percent from April 2014 to April 2015—

CoreLogic^® (NYSE: CLGX), a leading global property information, analytics and data-enabled services provider, today released its April CoreLogic Home Price Index (HPI®) report. Home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 10.5 percent in April 2014 compared to April 2013. This change represents 26 months of consecutive year-over-year increases in home prices nationally. On a month-over-month basis, home prices nationwide, including distressed sales, increased 2.1 percent in April 2014 compared to March 2014.*

At the state level, including distressed sales, no states posted depreciation in April 2014. Additionally, Colorado, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming all surpassed their previous home price peaks. In all, 23 states and the District of Columbia are at or within 10 percent of their peak home price appreciation.

Excluding distressed sales, home prices nationally increased 8.3 percent in April 2014 compared to April 2013 and 1.1 percent month over month compared to March 2014. Distressed sales include short sales and real estate owned (REO) transactions.

The CoreLogic HPI Forecast indicates that home prices, including distressed sales, are projected to increase 1.0 percent month over month from April 2014 to May 2014 and by 6.3 percent (+/- 1.5 percent)** from April 2014 to April 2015. Excluding distressed sales, home prices are expected to rise 0.8 percent month over month from 1.0 percent month over month from April 2014 to May 2014 and by 5.5 percent (+/- 1.5 percent)** from April 2014 to April 2015. The CoreLogic HPI Forecast is a monthly projection of home prices built on the CoreLogic HPI and other economic variables. Values are derived from state-level forecasts by weighting indices according to the number of owner-occupied households for each state.

“The weakness in home sales that began a few months ago is clearly signaling a slowdown in price appreciation,” said Sam Khater, deputy chief economist for CoreLogic. “The 10.5 percent increase in April, compared to a year earlier, was the slowest rate of appreciation in 14 months.”

“Home prices are continuing to rise as we head into the summer months,” said Anand Nallathambi, president and CEO of CoreLogic. “The purchase market continues to suffer from a dearth of inventory which we expect will continue to drive prices up over the year.”

Highlights as of April 2014:

• Including distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: California (+15.6 percent), Nevada (+14.8 percent), Hawaii (+14.1 percent), Oregon (+11.8 percent) and Michigan (+11.3 percent).
• Excluding distressed sales, the five states with the highest home price appreciation were: Hawaii (+13.0 percent), California (+11.4 percent), Nevada (+11.1 percent), New York (+10.3 percent) and Florida (+10.2 percent).
• Including distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the national HPI (from April 2006 to April 2014) was -14.3 percent. Excluding distressed transactions, the peak-to-current change in the HPI for the same period was -10.8 percent.
• Excluding distressed sales, all 50 states and the District of Columbia showed year-over-year home price appreciation in April.
• Including distressed sales, the U.S. has experienced 26 consecutive months of year-over-year increases; however, this is the smallest year-over-year increase since February 2013.
• The five states with the largest peak-to-current declines, including distressed transactions, were: Nevada (-38.6 percent), Florida (-34.5 percent), Arizona (-29.5 percent), Rhode Island (-28.8 percent) and West Virginia (-24.2 percent).
• Ninety-five of the top 100 Core Based Statistical Areas (CBSAs) measured by population showed year-over-year increases in April 2014. The five CBSAs that did not show an increase were: Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, Conn.; Milwaukee-Waukesha-West Allis, Wis.; Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, Ark.; Worcester, Mass.-Conn.; New Haven-Milford, Conn.

*March data was revised. Revisions with public records data are standard, and to ensure accuracy, CoreLogic incorporates the newly released public data to provide updated results.

** The forecast accuracy represents a 95-percent statistical confidence interval.

More Home Buyers Are Bringing All-Cash Offers to the Table

More Home Buyers Are Bringing All-Cash Offers to the Table

And more of these buyers are individuals, not the institutional investors who plunged into the housing market in 2012 and 2013.   Wealthy people, foreigners and retirees are transforming markets across the United States with these all-cash deals, helping make up for an alarming shortage of first-time buyers who are struggling to save for a down payment or qualify for a loan, a cause of grave concern about the long-term health of the market and its prospects for a true recovery.  “It’s the investor and the wealthy individual that’s keeping the market alive,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics.  “The wealthy buyers in particular are fully engaged now. The stock market is up and times are good for them.”    But it is a frustrating time for first-time buyers who cannot compete because their offers included financing contingencies, appraisals and inspections.

-          Washington Post, May 26, 2014

Texas Market has Massive Influx of New Residents

Texas Market has Massive Influx of New Residents

The Texas housing market is reacting to the massive influx of new residents spurred to move to the Lone Star state in search of high-paying energy and professional service jobs, as well as low cost of living.  As more residents move to Texas from other states with higher median home prices, the housing markets in Dallas, Houston and Austin have been bolstered by rising home prices of double-digit year-over-year growth, according to technology-based real estate brokerage firm Redfin's latest report.  About 2.5 million people relocated to Texas between 2008 and 2012 in search of jobs from more costly regions of the nation, the report stated.  In Dallas, the median list price was $192,500 in October, compared with $389,450 on Long Island and $495,000 in Los Angeles, according to the data.

-          Dallas Business Journal, November 28, 2013

 The largest real estate company in the world goes public--

RE/MAX set to go public Wednesday

All eyes in the world of real estate world will be watching Wednesday as franchisor Re/Max Holdings Inc. goes public, an event that expected to shed light on investor sentiment about the housing recovery.  “We know that the real estate market has cooled off since the spike in rates, and while Lennar just told us that the home building business is doing much better than we thought, this may not be the ideal moment for a real estate brokerage play like RE/MAX to be coming public,” Mad Money host Jim Cramer said today.  “I do think Re/Max is worth watching, if only to see which way the market jumps — it could be an important tell for everything associated with residential real estate.”

According to Nasdaq.com, shares in Re/Max will begin trading on Wednesday, Oct. 2, sharing the limelight with Burlington Coat Factory.  Re/Max has said it expects to net at least $177 million from the initial public offering.

The franchise network serves more than 90,000 agents in 6,300 offices and 90 countries. The IPO of 10 million shares is expected to be priced at between $19 and $21 per share.  Re/Max will also grant underwriters of the IPO a 30-day option to buy up to 1.5 million additional shares.  If underwriters fully exercise their option to purchase additional shares, the net proceeds will total $205.2 million, the company said in an amendment to its S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

-         Inman News, September 26,2013

Surging Interest Rates Will Not Slow Market

Just the Facts

Rates Will Have to Pass 7% Before Housing Slows

The rise in interest rates may only accelerate the market as buyers on the fence begin to buy, feeling the pressure of rising interest rates.  Major economists agree that rates will have to surpass 7% before there is a slow-down in the real estate market.  And even then with the pent-up demand, the market should continue briskly.   History shows that when rates went from 7% to 18% in 1979-1981, the housing market showed no signs of slowdown until about 12%.

-          Dallas Morning News, June 21, 2013 (excerpts)

Surging Interest Rates Will Not Slow Market

Surging mortgage rates may have little effect on the housing market, at least in the near term, housing experts say.  Mortgage rates rose sharply last week following comments from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that the Fed will begin tapering off its assets purchases later this year if incoming data continues to show the economy is on the mend.  The average cost of a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage loan increased to 4.36% on June 21^st, from 3.94% on June 14^th, and a record low of 3.36% in December according to Bankrate.com.

-          Inman News, June 24, 2013

Which Real Estate Brand Comes to Mind?

America’s Highest Earning Cities

America’s Highest Earning Cities

Survey of 562 cities, population over 50,000

Congratulations to Flower Mound, Frisco and Allen

There are 16 cities in the United State with populations over 50,000 where more than 50% of the households in the city earn more than $100,000 per year.  California and Texas dominate this list of high-earners.  Most of these cities are well-to-do suburbs of large metro areas, including Dallas-Ft Worth, San Francisco, Atlanta and Chicago.

Rank	City/CDP	Larger metro area	Percentage of households making over $100,000	Percentage of households making less than $100,000	Percentage of households making $100,000 to $149,999	Percentage of households making $150,000 to $199,999	Percentage of households making $200,000 or more
1	San Ramon, California	San Francisco	63.50%	36.50%	22.10%	16.40%	25.00%
2	Flower Mound, Texas	Dallas-Fort Worth	62.80%	37.10%	28.30%	15.90%	18.60%
3	Pleasanton, California	San Francisco	59.80%	40.00%	22.80%	14.70%	22.30%
4	Yorba Linda, California	Los Angeles	58.80%	41.20%	23.50%	16.70%	18.60%
5	Carmel, Indiana	Indianapolis	58.40%	41.60%	20.90%	14.30%	23.20%
6	Palo Alto, California	San Francisco	57.80%	42.10%	17.70%	11.90%	28.20%
7	Newton, Massachusetts	Boston	55.40%	44.60%	18.00%	11.70%	25.70%
8	Naperville, Illinois	Chicago	54.80%	45.10%	18.50%	13.50%	22.80%
9	Frisco, Texas	Dallas-Fort Worth	53.70%	46.30%	25.70%	14.70%	13.30%
10	The Woodlands CDP, Texas	Houston	53.40%	46.70%	24.70%	13.40%	15.30%
11	Johns Creek, Georgia	Atlanta	52.10%	48.00%	21.20%	10.40%	20.50%
12	Ellicott City CDP, Maryland	Baltimore	51.70%	48.30%	16.80%	16.40%	18.50%
13	Allen, Texas	Dallas-Fort Worth	51.20%	48.90%	24.50%	16.10%	10.60%
14	Lake Forest, California	Los Angeles	50.70%	49.30%	26.70%	13.70%	10.30%
15	Highlands Ranch CDP, Colorado	Denver	50.50%	49.40%	25.60%	12.70%	12.20%
16	Arlington CDP, Virginia	Washington, DC	50.30%	49.80%	18.10%	12.90%	19.30%

Data was obtained from the U.S. Census. 562 cities were included in this analysis.

-          NerdWallet, April 29, 2013

DFW Average Sold Prices are Up

Just the Facts

		AVERAGE SOLD PRICE CHANGE
			MAY 2013 vs. MAY 2012
	CITY			% CHANGE		May-13		May-12
	ALLEN			7.10%		$272,120		$254,053
	CARROLLTON/FB			6.50%		$201,460		$189,043
	COLLEYVILLE			-2.50%		$486,743		$489,984
	COPPELL			9.60%		$345,917		$315,563
	FAR NORTH DALLAS			1.00%		$307,353		$304,958
	FLOWER MOU / LV			5.50%		$254,027		$240,764
	FRISCO			6.70%		$327,312		$306,663
	GRAPEVINE			-3.70%		$258,273		$268,143
	IRVING			3.50%		$232,701		$224,770
	KELLER			3.90%		$353,187		$340,076
	McKINNEY			13.60%		$248,823		$218,728
	PLANO			14.20%		$315,097		$275,998
	PROSPER			13.60%		$337,328		$296,962
	RICHARDSON			8.20%		$192,250		$177,758
	SOUTHLAKE			8.40%		$603,996		$556,993
	THE COLONY			26.30%		$176,098		$139,399
	TROPHY CLUB/WESTLAKE			2.80%		$433,150		$422,294