Home market full of values It's the right time, place
to seek a new dwellingHome market full
of values
By MARICE RICHTER Staff Writer / The Dallas
Morning News
Are you new to
North Texas? Or, perhaps, you've been here awhile and
are ready to claim a new patch of turf as your own.
Either way, finding the right spot to call home is probably
one of the top priorities on your agenda.
Ron Baselice/DMN
A worker carries
lumber for a home being built in Grand Prairie .
Not
to worry. Whether you are looking for a ranch with enough
land for livestock to graze, a comfortable family home in
the suburbs, an older fixer-upper or an apartment to get
started, the area offers plenty of choices for every taste
and budget.
As North Texas has grown
during the last decade, so has the housing stock. Add to
that the softness in the economy, and the result is a bountiful
buyer's market, experts say.
"This is a great time
to buy," says Jack Harris, research economist for the
Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "This
is an especially good time to buy if you are looking for
a higher-priced home because prices have come down as the
market has gone through an adjustment."
If a high-priced home
even one that can be bought for a good value isn't
in your budget, there are many possibilities for moderate-priced
new housing. Builders in that price range are adding new
designs and options to attract buyers who might otherwise
gravitate to the resale market, which also offers outstanding
bargains, experts say.
With so much to choose from,
how and where do you start? Lately, home buyers in the market
for new construction have been drawn to the Dallas-Fort
Worth area's northern communities, including Frisco, McKinney
and parts of Tarrant and Denton counties.
Other parts of the region
are also showing signs of burgeoning growth. Rockwall County
is the country's leader in percentage population growth,
according to census figures released in April.
Despite having the least
land of any county in Texas, Rockwall grew by 7.9 percent
– more than 3,700 people – from July 2001 to
July 2002. Collin County grew by 5.6 percent to rank 20th,
and Denton County grew by 5.3 percent to rank 22nd among
the 100 fastest-growing counties in the United States.
Tarrant County, which grew
by 2.4 percent, added more than 36,000 people from July
2001 to July 2002, making it the area's leader in the actual
number of new residents. That growth is expected to continue,
according to projections from the North Central Texas Council
of Governments: Fort Worth alone has an estimated 577,500
residents this year – 3.5 percent more than in 2002
– and is forecast to grow to 826,665 by 2030.
The north Fort Worth area
has been especially popular because of employment opportunities
in the Alliance Airport area and an abundance of new homes
priced from about $120,000 to $300,000. Prices of new homes
in other high-growth areas, such as McKinney and Frisco,
range from $150,000 to $1 million and above.
New home sales in North Texas
topped 8,500 in the first quarter of 2003, up about 1 percent
from 2002, according to research from Metrostudy Inc., a
housing analyst. New homes were selling faster than existing
homes, according to that study.
Data from A&M's real
estate center show that, overall, home sales were down 8
percent in the first quarter of 2003 compared with 2002
in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Although the housing market
boasts plenty of choices, many homes are out of reach for
a lot of buyers, experts say.
"No matter what kind
of deals are out there, many home buyers are constrained
by what they can afford," says Dr. Harris, the A&M
economist. "Price is top consideration for most home
buyers."
Experts say other considerations
include:
• quality of schools.
• driving distance
to work.
• amenities of the
community, including parks and recreation opportunities.
Finding the ideal home might
not be easy, but many are saying that the timing is right.
"Mortgage rates are
lower than they have been in a long time, and that makes
this an excellent time to buy," Dr. Harris says.
