DFW Market Statistics for December 2008 Year to Date

I have complied this spreadsheet to give you the latest statistics from the North Texas Real Estate Information System. These statistics cover the areas stated for December 2008 YTD. Some areas, such as E Dallas, are holding strong with 18% more sales than the previous year. Most average sales prices are holding steady with only 5 of the 16 cities listed showing a decline from the previous year. The rest have held strong or gone up as much as 7%, such as in Coppell. It is taking longer to sell a house in N. Texas, but not that much longer. For example, a home that took 81 days (the average Days on Market)to sell in Keller would have taken 21 days less the previous year, which works out to 3 weeks. This is much better than what some analyists portray to be months longer.

Homes are starting to hit the market again. Don't let the gloom and doom on the national news affect your decision to buy or sell in 2009! With the right team working for you, it can be done!

DFW Reports 2nd Largest Employment Gain

Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 2:54pm CST Modified: Tuesday, January 6, 2009, 4:05pm

DFW reports 2nd largest employment gain
Dallas Business Journal

The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro area reported the second largest year-over-year employment gain nationally in November 2008 by adding 46,900 jobs. The Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington area trailed only the Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown area, which reported a non-farm employment gain of 54,300 jobs.

A report from the U.S. Department of Labor also said 121 metropolitan areas had jobless rates reaching 7% or above, up from only 18 areas the year before. In addition, 34 areas had rates below 4%--far fewer than the 133 areas that had jobless rates below 4% in Nov. of 2007.
The report goes on to say the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington unemployment rate hit 5.7% in Nov. of 2008, which is higher than the area's unemployment rate of 4.1% a year ago.

Over the previous year, non-farm employment rose in 11 of the 38 metropolitan areas surveyed with the largest year-over-year percentage employment gain recorded in Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown (up 2.1percent), followed by San Antonio (up 2 percent); Austin-Round Rock (up 1.6 percent) and Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington (up +1.6 percent).

Areas with the largest year-over-year employment decreases included: Detroit-Warren-Livonia, Mich. (-3.7 percent); Phoenix-Mesa-Scottsdale, Ariz. (-3 percent); Atlanta-Sandy Springs- Marietta, Ga. (-2.7 percent); as well as Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. (-2.7 percent).

The report says the largest year-over-year percentage employment gains by metropolitan divisions included Fort Worth-Arlington (up 1.8 percent); Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Wash. ( up 1.6 percent ); Dallas-Plano-Irving ( up 1.5 percent) and Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va. (up 1.1 percent).