A shrinking number of listings slowed sales in the Dallas- Fort Worth area, which has one of the strongest U.S. job markets, according to James Gaines, a research economist at Texas A&M University. Sales fell 4 percent in March and 2 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, according to data Gaines collected for the North Texas Association of Realtors.
The Texas region’s new home supply is limited because builders can’t hire enough construction workers and haven’t developed enough lots to meet demand, Gaines said. Many first- time buyers can’t qualify for a new home mortgage, he said, leading builders to focus production on move-up buyers.
Expensive Homes
“There’s very little entry-level housing being built,” Gaines said in a telephone interview from Waco. “They found that their profit margins and their business model works better if they build more expensive houses.”
Denver was the fastest-selling U.S. market in March as homes sold after an average 25 days on the market, down 32 percent from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com, a unit of Move Inc. The number of listings fell 20 percent.
Wendy Nelson spends about 90 minutes a day online looking for a house in the Denver suburb of Highlands Ranch. She’s toured 10 homes since March and made one offer for a house that she lost to a higher bidder.
“It’s so frustrating,” Nelson, 51, a sales representative for pharmaceutical maker Genentech, said in a telephone interview. “There’s not much out there and if there’s something you might consider, it’s gone in an hour.”
Seller’s Market
Nelson would like to buy a smaller home with a lower mortgage payment than the 4,600-square-foot (427-square-meter) house she bought in 2010, moving before her daughter goes to college in two years. A lot of what she sees in her price range under $450,000 isn’t worth a look beyond the Web. A bank-owned home that she described as “horrific” and “disgusting” had a $439,000 asking price.
“I’m like, ‘are you kidding me?’” Nelson said. “Some people are getting a little crazy saying, ‘It’s a seller’s market. We can get what we want.’”