Dallas, be grateful! We are rebounding! Things are looking up!

That is, according to the Jan. 31 Local Market Monitor report for the Dallas-Plano-Irving market. For me, this just re-affirms what Realtors and sellers are telling us: Well-staged homes that are priced right are flying off the market in record time. And we’re head-and-shoulders above the national market, too!

Home values for Dallas- Plano- Irving are forecast to increase by 2 percent over the next 12 months. Nationally, prices are forecast to increase by 1.2 percent. In the second and third year, prices are forecast to increase 5% and 7%, respectively.

To what do we owe this success? Well, it’s a mixed bag, but a lot of it has to do with job growth and economic recovery. There has been a 2.5 percent increase in overall job growth, with sectors such as finance experiencing a renaissance of sorts.

According to economist Mark Dotzour at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University, corporations are moving to more business-friendly climates and taking their jobs with them:

Let’s face it. Employers come to Texas and other southern locations because they feel that they can make a higher profit. Taxes are a major consideration. So is the cost of labor. Clearly businesses are moving away from areas with a high concentration of unionized labor.

Does this ring true for you? What do you think is the reason for our uptick in sales and existing home prices?