Market Has Challenges Ahead, But it’s Not as Bad as Steve Brown Reports

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CoreLogic Estimate

A couple of weeks ago, I broke down the Dallas Morning News’ recent real estate coverage since COVID-19 sprung up. Essentially I had a problem with their telling an incomplete story and tirelessly opening in gloom when they didn’t need to (clickbait).

Well, bad news Steve Brown has been at it again with stories that demonstrate another point I’ve been making – COVID-19, if anything, will leave us with a bigger shortage of housing than we have now and that economic recovery will rapidly drive prices higher.

No Gnashing Necessary

In my prior story, I noted the DMN reported on May 5th that CoreLogic was projecting a 1.8 percent decrease in prices by March 2021. This month, DMN reports CoreLogic is now projecting a 2 percent drop by April. 2021 So another month, another two-tenths of one percent lower (clutch pearls as needed). It’s important to remember Dallas’ home prices are up by 75 percent over pre-2008 Recession highs. Two percent is nothing.

But on June 3rd we see the headline, “Dallas-Fort Worth construction starts plunged as COVID-19 spread” In this case, “plunge” equates to Dodge Data & Analytics reporting housing starts were down 14 percent in April compared to April 2019. This stat is important to understand. It’s not saying that the number of housing units begun is down 14 percent. It’s saying the VALUE of housing starts is down 14 percent year-over-year ($1.116 billion in April 2019 versus $963 million in April 2020). So if builders had begun to shift new construction to lower-priced units, their overall value would decrease regardless of the number starting construction. Without knowing the number of units begun, we can’t draw a useful conclusion.

Certainly, with rampant unemployment and people financially on edge, I know I’d be building less expensive for a while to appeal to a broader market.

Severe Shortage Already Exists

But for the sake of argument, let’s say permitted units were also down 14 percent. In the Dallas metro there were 34,523 residential building permits issued in 2019. Let’s say that the 14 percent reduction holds for the coming year, that’s roughly 5,000 fewer homes built.

Remember, Texas is short a half million homes and Dallas accounts for tens of thousands of those.  If this slowdown holds, the coming year will have added another 5,000 homes to that deficit which will further drive up Dallas prices with economic recovery.

The Grim Reaper’s Calculator

I hear some of you whispering that high unemployment will drive foreclosures and fast sales. Maybe, but do you think it will be enough to sate our home shortage? Doubtful.  

Well, COVID-19 continues to claim lives, so let’s look at that.

At the ridiculously low end, let’s say Dallas is 30,000 homes short. Let’s say that there are on average two people per home. That’s 60,000 deaths we’d need just on the surface.

A high percentage of those are older living in assisted living plus some too young or otherwise outside the housing ladder. Rounding conservatively again, there’d likely have to be over 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the Dallas metro to cancel out our current housing shortage. If that happened, there would be millions dead nationwide. So that’s not going to happen either.

In fact, if CoreLogic is remotely correct, their 2 percent drop in prices doesn’t account for much erosion from any quarter. This is not the 2008 Recession.

Jon Anderson is CandysDirt.com's condo/HOA and developer columnist, but also covers second home trends on SecondShelters.com. An award-winning columnist, Jon has earned silver and bronze awards for his columns from the National Association of Real Estate Editors in both 2016, 2017 and 2018. When he isn't in Hawaii, Jon enjoys life in the sky in Dallas.

5 Comments

  1. MaryBeth Harrison on June 4, 2020 at 10:36 am

    Thank you for calling Steve Brown out for his gloomy look at the Dallas market. I know headlines sell but at least make them true and not sensational. As a Dallas Realtor for 30 years I have seen my share of ups and downs. This is an event driven market not an economic one as in 2008. There is a vast difference to the two and their speed of recovery. I have experienced a brisk market since March. Homes priced under $500,000 and below are selling so fast and usually with multiple offers. As with any market, if a home is priced well and looks good it will sell. The operative word is priced correctly. pricing your home too high without regard to data showing differently will never bode well in any market.

  2. TG on June 4, 2020 at 12:07 pm

    “(clutch pearls as needed)” … LOL

  3. Cody Farris on June 4, 2020 at 3:44 pm

    I agree with Mary Beth. While high unemployment and other factors could impact the market, your deeper dive into the data is always helpful. I don’t anticipate a spike in foreclosures since many banks will have moratoriums in place (either self- or federally-imposed) and a greater emphasis on loss mitigation. Further, the quality of the loans underwritten in the last several years leading up to this event was better than the quality of many of the loans underwritten leading up to ’07-’08, when riskier products such as stated income, interest-only, 80/20, negative amortization and others were common.

  4. Jon Anderson on June 5, 2020 at 10:16 am
    • Cody Farris on June 5, 2020 at 1:40 pm

      I saw that headline today and thought you’d appreciate it.

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