As commerce resumes, prices are beginning to rise. Over the past year, home prices in Dallas have risen steadily by 3%, according to the Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index. However, prices are still down overall by 6% from their mid-2007 peak-and the story is far worse in other areas. The moderate gains in the Dallas market have been overshadowed by the enormous drops in others-the Las Vegas area has reported an annual decline of 20.6% of home prices. The recent federal assistance programs are credited for what turnaround has occurred, and the rate of foreclosures has slowed due to a flood of programs designed to assist borrowers who have fallen behind in payments. Throughout the country, housing construction has been on the rise, with the Commerce Department reporting an increase the construction of new houses and apartments by 2.8%-the strongest it has been in six months.
But not all news is good news. While the rate of foreclosures has fallen, the rate of mortgage delinquency has risen over the course of the last year by almost 1%, to 10.3%. Currently Texas’s delinquency rates rank just behind the national average of 10.44%, even as its foreclosure rate of 2% is less than half of the national average. And the number of foreclosure filings remain high, reaching a record rate of 61,000 in the North Texas region. While actual foreclosures get more attention from the media, the high rate of delinquency is nothing to dismiss out of hand-they greatly affect the real estate market by impairing the ability of mortgage agencies to front capital.
Over the past year, home buyers and sellers have been engaged in a waiting game. Due to the uncertainty caused by the housing crash and slow recovery, sellers are taking a wait-and-see approach before listing their houses for sale. Buyers, also considering the recent trends, are waiting as well. Regardless of where prices go, any sign of a continual change should spark an increase of activity in the housing market.
From reading both positive and negative signs, it is difficult to establish predictions for the future of the Dallas housing market. Some may call it “the beginning of the end” for the wave of foreclosures that touched off the real estate crisis, after which the housing market should recover. However, no one can tell whether the beginning of the end truly is, until the end has transpired.
By Ashlee Pannell: A Dallas Texas Real Estate Broker, With Nu Home Source Realty a City Real Estate Company. We are Home of the 20% Commission rebate to most of our buyers. Ask about our bucks for buyers program.
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