Date Archives: March 2018

North Texas home sales rose ten percent in February from a year earlier, an increase that came even with higher mortgage costs and record home prices.  Real estate agents sold 7,199 preowned single family homes last month.  That was the highest February sales total ever in North Texas, according to data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and NTREIS.  For the first two months of 2018, real estate agents sold 7 percent more houses than in the same period last year.

• Dallas Morning News, March 17, 2018

Homebuilders are betting that boomers will be among the biggest buyers of new homes in the next few years.   And North Texas residential communities are gearing up for the coming gray wave of residents with new neighborhoods aimed at the 55-plus crowd.  These older buyers tend to have higher incomes and are more interested in a new house compared with young, first time homebuyers.     

Numerous developments in the region have recently announced 55-Plus neighborhoods inside their master-planned communities.   Viridian in Arlington has announced a 500-home section for 55-Plus.  Union Park north of Frisco has also just announced a 55-Plus section in their development.   While previous generations of aging buyers often headed to separate senior communities, the tide has turned in thought.   Fewer boomer buyers want to relocate to a segregated seniors-only community in the far off 'burbs, said Dallas housing analyst Ted Wilson of residential Strategies.  "There has been a complete rethinking on how to approach these buyers," Wilson said. "It used to be golf courses and millions of dollars for amenity centers. Now it's about being close to the grandkids and being part of a bigger community."  With the aging U.S. population, the building industry is banking on thousands of 55-plus buyers in the next decade. The industry index of potential buyers from this demographic is at an all-time high, according to the National Association of Home Builders.  Boomers already make up about a third of U.S. homebuyers. And 38 percent of all homebuyers last year were 55 or older, according to the National Association of Realtors.  Wilson said a quarter of the D-FW area's population is 50 or older, and this pool of homebuyers will swell by 188,000 in the next five years.  "There are amazing stats on the growth of active adults," said Wilson.

• Dallas Morning News, March 17, 2018

The massive $1.1 Billion DART Cotton Belt Line is scheduled to start construction in less than one year with a completion and operational date of December 2022.  The line will begin on Shiloh Road in Plano and travel through Plano, Richardson, Addison, Carrollton, Dallas, Coppell and Grapevine, with its final destination at DFW International Airport.  Along the way it will reach hundreds of thousands of workers in various office parks and connect with the Red Line, the Green Line and reach DFW Airport and the Orange Line.   Some of the major features and changes.

• The huge Cypress Waters stop at Northlake/Cypress Waters adjoining Coppell – plans are for a major retail/office/apartments and lofts and restaurants at that location.
• 36 quite zones whereby trains will cross major intersections, some intersections raised, without sounding horns.
• The Cotton Belt train car will be the size of two existing light rail cars and, unlike light rail, will be self-propelled, so there will not be any overhead wires.

The next and nearing the final DART hearing for resident input on the Cotton Belt is March 27^th, 6:30 pm, at DART headquarters downtown.  After that there will be a 45-day period for public input after the federal government releases its final environmental study.  From there, the plans are set and DART will move to construction.

• Dallas Morning News, March 18, 2018

Dallas-area home prices were up 6.7 percent in January from a year ago.  CoreLogic analysts said that almost half the U.S. housing markets  are considered overvalued. North Texas has been included on the list of home markets where prices are overheated, according to several studies.  Home prices are forecast to rise by almost 5 percent across the country in the coming year.  North Texas median home sales prices were 9 percent higher in 2017 than in 2016, according to data from local real estate agents.  While the rate of home price growth in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has slowed in recent months, prices in the area are still at record levels.

• Dallas Morning News, March 6, 2018

An Atlanta property company that's done suburban Dallas mixed-use projects will be the lead builder on a transit-oriented development in Carrollton.  Integral Group LLC has been selected as the master developer for the Trinity Mills Transit Center District, according to the city of Carrollton and Dallas Area Rapid Transit.  Integral came up with a development plan for the area surrounding DART's Trinity Mills Station near the southeast corner of Stemmons Freeway and Trinity Mills Road.  The transit station is also the connection point with the Denton County Transit Authority's A-Train commuter line. The planned Trinity Mills Urban Village will have retail, apartments and commercial construction.  The project is around $350 million in a mix of office, housing, hotel and retail and some medical office," Lomenick said. "We are working with them on refining the planning and infrastructure strategies. Right now we are working on our financials."  The proposed development includes more than 26 acres just south of Bush Turnpike that are owned by the city and DART. 

• Dallas Morning News, March 7, 2018

The Dallas-Fort Worth area accounted for about a third of all the home sales in Texas in 2017.   And D-FW had more home sales than any other Texas metro area, according to a new report by the Texas Association of Realtors.    Last year more than 102,000 preowned single-family homes were sold in the D-FW area -- a more than 3 percent increase from 2016 sales by agents. Statewide, 336,502 homes were sold, up 4 percent for the year.   "Across the state, we are projecting sales activity to be even more robust in 2018," Dr. James Gaines, chief economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, said in the report. "One of the big drivers will be from first-time homebuyers finding opportunity in the market with more builders focusing on the entry-level price point and lenders relaxing the requirements for first-time homebuyers.  D-FW's median home sales price last year rose by almost 10 percent to a record $255,000, according the Texas Realtors association. The increase in home costs came even though the inventory of houses listed for sale with agents rose by more than 9 percent in 2017.   The largest share of homes sold last year in D-FW -- almost a third -- went for between $200,000 and $300,000, according to the Realtors.   Almost a quarter of the local buyers in 2017 were between 45 and 54 years old, the largest share of the market.   Just under 60 percent of D-FW residents live in owner-occupied homes. That's slightly less than the statewide home ownership rate of 62 percent.

• Texas Association of Realtors, March 7, 2018

The six lowest taxed states based on a report from 24/7 Wall Street are as follows:

1. Alaska

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 6.5%
• Income per capita: $55,646 (8th highest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $0 (tied — the lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $2,639 (4th highest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $0 (tied — the lowest)

2. Wyoming

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 7.1%
• Income per capita: $55,116 (9th highest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $0 (tied — the lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $2,109 (9th highest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $1,384 (5th highest)

3. South Dakota

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 7.1%
• Income per capita: $47,834 (22nd highest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $0 (tied — the lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $1,301 (24th lowest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $1,131 (9th highest)

4. Tennessee

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 7.3%
• Income per capita: $43,326 (18th lowest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $46 (8th lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $830 (7th lowest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $992 (18th highest)

5. Louisiana

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 7.6%
• Income per capita: $42,298 (13th lowest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $639 (12th lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $839 (8th lowest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $627 (12th lowest)

6. Texas

• Taxes paid as pct. of income: 7.6%
• Income per capita: $46,274 (25th highest)
• Income tax collections per capita: $0 (tied — the lowest)
• Property tax collections per capita: $1,635 (14th highest)
• General sales tax collections per capita: $1,226 (6th highest)
• USA Today, February 23, 2018

This Dallas home at 3220 Northhaven Court will soon be placed on the market in exchange for property coin, bitcoin or ethereum.

An El Segundo, California-based startup has brought cryptocurrency home sales to Dallas-Fort Worth, with plans to sell a North Dallas house after fixing it up and readying it for a would-be buyer.  Aperture Real Estate Ventures has launched its Property Coin concept in North Texas, giving home buyers the opportunity to buy an upgraded home in the hot North Texas housing market on an electronic dime by using Property Coin, bitcoin or ethereum.  Property Coin offers investors the ability to buy into a fund backed by the company's housing portfolio of fix-and-flip housing. Property Coin is built on ethereum, which is a blockchain platform.  "This is our first home in Dallas, but we are targeting the Dallas market with plans to buy 10 to 30 homes a month once we scale up," said Rudy Cortes, a co-founder of Aperture Real Estate Ventures.  Nationally, the volatile bitcoin currency has already been involved in a handful of real estate deals.  This method of using cryptocurrency to sell a home hasn't been widely used by real estate brokerage firms.  The most expensive bitcoin-to-bitcoin real estate deal traded last month in Miami, when investor Michael Komaransky sold a 9,400-square-foot mansion in Miami for 455 bitcoin. At the time, this equated to roughly $6 million, according to The Real Deal.   Once Property Coin launches under security token PCX, the coin will sell for $50 at its initial offering on Feb. 26.  Cryptocurrency investors in the United States must acquire a minimum of $1,000 worth of coins, while investors outside the U.S. can pick up Property Coin with an investment of $100.   Aperture Real Estate expects to put the North Dallas home on the market in early April for a yet-to-be determined sum.

• Dallas Business Journal, February 23, 2018

Sold February 2018, $2 Million, 848 Sq Ft, $2,358 per Sq Ft, Sold $550,000 over List Price

Houses in Sunnyvale, California, are selling for record multi-million dollar prices due to their proximity to Silicon Valley jobs, according to a report. The latest is a 848 square foot house sold in two days for $2 million.  A "small, unassuming home in the Cherry Chase neighborhood," of Sunnyvale, California, which has two bedrooms, a total of 648 square feet in living space, and was described as "nothing particularly breathtaking," sold for $2 million recently, despite the fact that the asking price was $550,000 less.  "It sold for the highest square-foot price recorded in Sunnyvale — a stunning $2,358, according to MLSListings, which tracks homes sales going back to 2000," reported Mercury News, who claimed that the "jaw-dropping price tag suggests Sunnyvale, which has traditionally been less expensive than neighboring cities Cupertino or Palo Alto, is becoming a real estate destination in itself."  According to the report, the average house in Sunnyvale now sells for 28 percent over its listed price.

• Charlie Nash reporting, March 2, 2018