December 2008 Archives

Someone left a comment criticizing a particular home for being overpriced.  Unfortunately, I can't publicly discuss homes that are not my listings.  (Note that I have all of the local listings on my site, not just mine. The listing broker and agent are clearly identified in large bold type right under the photos.)

However, the gist of the comment was "not a home in town is going for 143 a square foot."  This is incorrect.  In the last six months, 227 homes have sold in Southlake and the average sold $/sf was $151.  There were 33 homes sold in the past six months in the 3000-3500sf (the range of the home in question), and they averaged $130/sf with five over $143/sf.

And to determine if a home is overpriced, we need to look at the true comparables in the immediate area, not city wide statistics.  If you'd like to know more about the value of your home, give us a call and we can pull some quick stats for you.

I didn't realize how hard it was to comment on this blog until I just now, when I tried to leave a comment on a friend's blog.  So we have opened up this blog to anonymous comments.  Hopefully we can keep the spam under control!

If you tried commenting earlier and decided it was too hard, please try again!

Each month Standard & Poors (S&P) releases the Case-Shiller Home Price indices.  They cover twenty metro areas, including DFW.  Their data is based on the repeat sale of the same home, so it compares apples to apples.  The Case-Shiller home page is here.

There have been big declines some cities over the past two years, and the headlines always emphasize the national average.  Happily for us, DFW has been doing much better than that average.  In fact, the latest report shows we have suffered the smallest decline (-3%) over the past year of any reported metro area versus the average of -18%.  The local -1.1% drop in a month continues a trend of down months since last spring.

Here is a summary of the report, sorted by annual decline:

S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices, October 2008

Metro Area	One Month Change	One Year Change
TX-Dallas	-1.1%	-3.0%
NC-Charlotte	-1.8%	-4.4%
CO-Denver	-1.5%	-5.2%
MA-Boston	-1.1%	-6.0%
OH-Cleveland	-1.0%	-6.2%
NY-New York	-0.9%	-7.5%
OR-Portland	-1.9%	-10.1%
WA-Seattle	-1.4%	-10.2%
GA-Atlanta	-2.4%	-10.5%
IL-Chicago	-1.6%	-10.8%
MN-Minneapolis	-3.4%	-16.3%
DC-Washington	-2.7%	-18.7%
FL-Tampa	-3.4%	-19.8%
MI-Detroit	-4.5%	-20.4%
CA-San Diego	-3.0%	-26.7%
CA-Los Angeles	-2.6%	-27.9%
FL-Miami	-3.0%	-29.0%
CA-San Francisco	-4.2%	-31.0%
NV-Las Vegas	-2.7%	-31.7%
AZ-Phoenix	-3.3%	-32.7%
Composite-20	-2.2%	-18.0%

This chart shows the monthly change in the Dallas and Composite-20 index for the past two years:

This is information that REALTORS(r) check out every month.  It allows us to get a feel for what is going on in our marketplace.  This is Year to Date information for the areas that I specialize in; it includes only single family residences.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, "all real estate is local".  While some of the numbers are off from last year, especially the number of units sold,  please note that most prices are holding steady or even increasing.  It may take a little longer, but homes that are priced right and are in good condition still sell.  Also a word of caution, this chart is comparing the price of homes sold this year with the price of homes sold last year.  For instance, an increase in the average sales price means that the average price of the homes sold this year was higher than those that sold last year.  It does not mean that all of the homes in that specific area increased in value by the percentage change shown.

Anyway, I hope you find this information helpful.  I hope to update it at least every couple of months so stay posted.

MLS Activity Report for Selected Areas

City	# of Sales	% Change vs. Prior Year	Avg Sale $ Price	% Change vs. Prior Year	Median Price $	% Change vs. Prior Year	Avg Days on Market	% Change vs. Prior Year
Bedford	504	-6%	166,543	0%	156,900	1%	60	22%
Colleyville	353	-20%	519,379	-3%	419,000	-7%	74	25%
Denton County Southeast	3,335	-20%	238,848	-4%	193,000	-3%	69	19%
Euless	415	-17%	157,569	3%	151,750	2%	55	0%
FW-North Central Tarrant	1,831	-12%	161,561	2%	150,000	0%	75	7%
Grapevine	459	-15%	247,890	3%	230,000	5%	49	11%
Hurst	516	-11%	151,123	-1%	140,000	1%	83	41%
Keller	693	-21%	340,363	5%	287,500	1%	81	29%
N Richland Hills / Richland Hills	713	-16%	167,822	0%	132,480	-3%	67	5%
Roanoke	160	-20%	161,769	5%	150,000	6%	77	26%
Southlake	461	-20%	633,301	3%	545,000	4%	76	9%
Trophy Club / Westlake	157	-13%	482,291	6%	264,750	2%	85	31%
Watauga	295	-26%	101,780	-3%	99,900	-1%	66	3%

Single Family Residences - November 2008 Year to Date.

All Information is from North Texas Real Estate Information System (NTREIS) and is believed but not guaranteed to be accurate.

This terrific place is a landmark in the Dallas eatery world.  It was the first place my husband and I revisited when we returned from a fifteen year sojourn in New England.  It hadn't changed a bit. That was twelve years ago and it still hasn't changed. That's good thing.  Our favorite items are the wonderfully fresh shrimp and oysters; we love them fried.  And then there's the oysters on the half shell!  Located on McKinney Ave, this restaurant has lots of personality with a hint of New Orleans. 

Go hungry!

Star-Telegram article about Keller...  Well, again, they pulled it down.  I'll have to stop linking to these disappearing articles.

"Joey Grisham wants to turn Keller into a shopping destination with a hotel and conference center, major retailers and chain restaurants."

More info at the Economic Development page at City of Keller site:
http://www.cityofkeller.com/index.aspx?page=31

Nice editorial about Southlake in the Star-Telegram.

Update, 1/24/2009:
Well, it was a nice editorial but has since been removed from their site.

Some key points:
How did Southlake rise to the top? ... Luck and location deserve partial credit. ... But give credit to Southlake government officials, who have done a lot of things right. ... The city's success and notoriety deserve admiration, not jealousy.

We didn't have a white Christmas this year, but the Holiday Spirit was manifested by a lovely display of lights!  The photo below was taken from the steps of the City Hall in Southlake Town Center.  In the distance is the fountain on the Green and further on the Pavilion.  Note the steer!  On the night we took this picture, folks were having their picture taken with it.

The City Hall was a knock out!  Note the new city logo in the center between the columns!

This lovely home on Byron Nelson in Timarron was an absolute delight!  On the night we drove past, Santa was granting audiences in the front yard and cars were lined up as folks as folks enjoyed this lovely display.

The forecasted low for Sunday night (12/21/08) is 19 degrees!  When it gets that cold, we have to worry about frozen pipes.

Two important things to do. First, cover your outdoor spigots, as seen in the photo.  This cover came from Home Depot.

Second, keep a faucet dripping slowly all night.  Only one faucet is needed.  If water does start to freeze in your pipes, it will expand and without this "leak" it could burst a pipe.  What a mess!

Local civic and real estate industry leaders have developed an excellent website describing why this is a great time to buy in Dallas/Fort Worth. Read about it at  DFWHousingFacts.org

The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M is a leading center of academic work on real estate.  The economists there prepare a monthly report on the Texas economy.

This month's report begins:

"The Texas economy is relentlessly adding jobs despite more job losses for the nation.
Texas' nonfarm employment rose 2.2 percent from October 2007 to October 2008
compared with a decrease of 0.9 percent for the United States."

The complete report is at http://recenter.tamu.edu/pdf/1862.pdf.

I'm very excited (and a little overwhelmed) to be starting a blog.  I plan to write about real estate news, placing the national news in a local context.  Real Estate really is local!  I also want to share some of the exciting things going on in our neighborhood along with photos.

A lot of the visitors to my website are thinking about relocating to Texas, and I want to give them  a better feel for what it is like to live in Northeast Tarrant County and the DFW Metroplex.

Please feel free to post or get in touch with me if you have any comments, questions, or ideas for what you would like to see here or if you have ideas of what might be helpful to someone relocating.

Thanks for reading!