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DFW Housing Expert Sees Hope

DFW Housing Expert Sees Hope DALLAS, TX - The Dallas and Fort Worth housing market certainly isn't looking up, but there are faint signs that have given one expert a glimmer of hope.

"There are a lot of these initial signs, these little hooks, that may mean we're nearing the bottom," said Ted Wilson, principal with Dallas-based Residential Strategies Inc., who presented the company's report on first-quarter new-home activity at Northwood Country Club in Dallas Wednesday.

"The reality is that market bottoms usually take more time to form," Wilson said. "It's a little early to say that this is the actual bottom."

As Wilson began his presentation, one developer in the audience compared measuring the bottom to "fishing in a deep lake —I don't have enough line."

Wilson projected that the market bottom will likely come by late 2009, possibly November. But he added that recovery of the North Texas housing market is largely dependent on the recovery of the national economy.

In the first quarter of 2009, there were 2,286 home starts — 52% below the first quarter of 2008.

There were 17,019 starts in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for the year ending March 31, 2009, and 22,608 closings. At the end of the first quarter, there were 3,851 homes under construction and a finished home inventory of 6,432.

For 11 consecutive quarters, area builders have closed 16,569 more houses than they've started, showing a dedication to working down existing new home inventories, Wilson said. In the first quarter of 2009, builders closed 1,710 more houses than they started. Source: Dallas Business Journal

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