It’s February here in Fort Worth and the real estate market is heating up even if the weather’s not! If you’ve been keeping up with the market you know we are in a Seller Market here in Fort Worth. Homes are selling in weekends and prices are increasing. Here is a quick update on the status and at the end of this article we’ll talk about what to expect this year.
Inventory of houses in Fort Worth
For homes under $500k we are right around 1.3 months worth of inventory. This means if we stop listing homes today we would run out in under a month and a half. This is due to an influx of people, jobs and overall growth here in the metroplex.
Although inventory is down, the days on market is up slightly. I don’t believe this to be a lack of buyers. If you look at what is on the market, most of it is in need of updating and overpriced. As prices have increased so dramatically here in the last few years buyers are becoming more savvy as we start to reach a saturation point and are no longer overpaying for outdated housing.
What’s really interesting is the upper end market. The inventory is the lowest it has been in the last 5 years. We only have about 4 months worth of inventory for homes over $500k.
If you break this down even further, there is a huge opportunity in the $500k to Million dollar market. Tarrant county as a whole only has 3.5 months worth of inventory while Fort Worth is sitting on the lower end of a balanced market.
Predictions
The question everyone asks is, “What’s going to happen in the housing market in Fort Worth this year”? I can tell you with out a doubt a lot of homes will be bought and sold. (Dad Joke)
Interest rates will go up, the question is when. I would expect right around tax season when everyone get’s that extra jingle in their pocket. We are nearing an exhaustion or saturation point here in the Dallas / Fort Worth area. I think the lower end market will continue to see rapid appreciation and the homes over $250k will start to slow down on appreciation. The amount of debt college education is taking up isn’t leaving a lot of room for big mortgage payments. We are seeing interest rates right around 4% now, I would expect by the end of the year 4.5% will be more common. This will be another great year for the Real Estate industry here in Texas.
