Texas New Home Market Surprises in February

DALLAS, March 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New home sales in Texas rose slightly last month, while the average new home price for the state fell slightly as the sale pace of new home sales stabilized, according to new data released by HomesUSA.com for February.

The biggest surprise: pending sales dropped sharply in February statewide in all four of the state’s biggest new homes markets including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio, HomesUSA.com reported, based on data from local Multiple Listing Services, including the Houston Association of REALTORS, North Texas Real Estate Information Systems, San Antonio Board of REALTORS and the Austin Board of REALTORS.

The new data reported by HomesUSA.com shows the 12-month rolling average pace of new home sales in the state rose slightly from 3,830 to 3,835. The average new home price in Texas was $358,287 in February, down slightly from $358,827 in January. In Texas, the HomeUSA.com New Home Sales Index showed the statewide Days on Market (DOM) was 111.81 days in February, relatively flat from the 111.53 days reported in January.

Total new home pending sales dropped statewide last month in all four major Texas markets. Statewide pending sales dropped from a 12-month rolling average of 3,649 new home sales to 3,386 new home sales.

The HomeUSA.com New Home Sales Index also showed the Dallas-Fort Worth new home sales pace increased slightly, from 114.81 DOM in January to 115.57 in February. In San Antonio, the DOM improved slightly, dropping from 102.48 days in January to 102.24 days in February. The DOM in Austin also showed some improvement, falling from 112.96 in January to 112.83 in February. [Due to technical issues the Houston Association of Realtors is experiencing, they are unable to provide Days on Market data. This report will be updated when data is provided.] (See Chart 1: Texas New Homes Days on Market)

“This is a mix of good news bad news for both home buyers and builders,” said Ben Caballero, owner of HomesUSA.com, and real estate’s first Guinness World Record holder for real estate sales. “February brought some surprises with stronger new home sales, which is good news for builders and lower new home prices, which is good news for buyers. But the continued decline in pending home sales could turn out in the long run to be bad news for everybody. We will have to wait and see,” he added.

Caballero is sharing this Texas new homes data for February, as the Commerce Department will release its national report for New Residential Home Sales for January today, Friday, March 29 at 10:00 am Eastern. The Commerce Department is running behind schedule issuing its nationwide new home construction data due to the recent lapse in federal funding.

TEXAS NEW HOME SALES DATA

New home sales were higher in the state’s two biggest new home markets, Dallas-Ft. Worth and Houston. Dallas-Ft. Worth posted a jump in new home sales in February, from 1,321 sales in January to 1,325 in February. New home sales in Houston increased from 1,311 in January, to 1,318 sales in February.

New home sales in Austin were lower last month with 670 new home sales in February, down slightly from 675 sales in January. San Antonio new home sales in February were 521, down marginally from 523 sales in January. (See Chart 2: Texas New Home Sales)

TEXAS NEW HOME PRICE TRENDS
Statewide, new home prices dropped in three of the state’s four biggest new homes markets. In Dallas-Ft. Worth, the average new home price in February was $375,059, down from $375,792 in January. Houston saw its average new home price drop from $361,341 in January, to $360,376 in February. In Austin, the average new home price declined in February to $368,488 from $368,944 in January. San Antonio was the one anomaly, as the average new home price increased slightly in February from $297,061 in January to $297,698 in February. (See Chart 3: Texas New Home Prices)

TEXAS PENDING NEW HOME SALES DATA
Pending new home sales were lower throughout the state of Texas. Dallas-Ft. Worth posted a 12-month rolling average of 1,178 pending new home sales for February, down from 1,266 pending sales in January. Pending new home sales in Houston for February were 1,166, down from 1,256 in January.

Austin's pending new home sales also were lower last month with 576 pending new sales in February, down from 624 pending home sales in January. San Antonio pending new home sales in February were 466, down from 502 pending new home sales in January. (See Chart 4: Texas Pending New Home Sales)

About the HomesUSA.com New Home Sales Index
The HomesUSA.com Index is a 12-month rolling average of the Days on Market (DOM) for new homes listed in the local Multiple Listing Services (MLSs) for the four largest Texas markets, including Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio. Created by Ben Caballero, founder, and CEO of HomesUSA.com and the most productive real estate agent in the world, it is the first index to track the sale pace of new home sales specifically.

About Ben Caballero and HomesUSA.com®
Ben Caballero is a Guinness World Record holder¹, earning him the reputation as the world’s most productive real estate agent. Top-ranked in America by REAL Trends since 2013, as published in the Wall Street Journal, he is also the only agent to exceed $1 billion in residential sales transactions in a single year; a feat first achieved in 2015 and repeated each year until 2018 when he achieved more than $2 billion. An award-winning innovator, Caballero is the founder and CEO of HomesUSA.com, Inc., working with more than 60 home builders in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. He recently released a podcast series available on iTunes and Google Play. Learn more at HomesUSA.com |Twitter: @bcaballero - @HomesUSA | Facebook: /HomesUSAdotcom.