Dallas Housing Market Makes Multiple Lists as ‘Best of’ for 2017

We’ve been saying it for ages: the Dallas housing market (DFW, really) is on fire. This is evidenced by a shortage of housing stock, incredible buyer demand, construction everywhere, and a tendency of many houses to fly on and off the market in a matter of days (especially those under $300K), among other things.

Now, it’s easy to find an expert to support almost any position. But we’ve found a few with reputable sources and a history of accuracy that agree with us. We’re interested in why they think the Dallas housing market is one of the strongest in the nation. Read on to find out more.

First up, CNBC experts note that Dallas is the second healthiest real estate market in the nation, in part because we didn’t go through the boom to bust that much of the nation did during the recession. We’re going up from a higher beginning point.

“The area is seeing consistent employment growth, fueled by its very diverse set of industries of professional and business services, health care and leisure/hospitality. Its population nearly tripled the national rate in 2015.”

They rate the five healthiest housing markets as Tampa; Dallas; Columbus, Ohio; Las Vegas; and Jacksonville, Florida.

The folks over at Local Market Monitor forecast prices will increase 31 percent in Dallas by 2020 (!!!). They mention our 3.9 percent job growth in the past year and 6.2 percent population growth in the last three years. That’s huge.

Dallas dominates the “best investment markets” list at Forbes, with them noting our average home price of $233,000, up 3.9 percent from a year ago and underpriced by 3 percent compared to the city’s historic average.

“These are markets where you are probably going to get a good return and you are not taking an extraordinary risk…you can make an investment, you are probably going to get a good return, and you are not taking an extraordinary risk,” they write, saying when it comes to balancing risk and reward in real estate, cities in the Southern half of the country look to be in the sweet spot now, in general.

Last year, WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez explained what makes DFW cities score so high, which still holds true today.

“North Texas cities have healthy and sustainable real estate markets,” Gonzalez said. “Very few homes have negative equity, home appreciation in the past seven years has continued to increase, and foreclosure rates are extremely low. In addition to having a healthy real estate market, these cities are affordable with low maintenance costs and cost of living. Not to mention, the economic environment in North Texas is thriving, boasting some of the lowest unemployment rates in the country (under 3 percent across the board).”