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Help Wanted

Hey you loan officer that always email me, spam me, call me.... UGGH!  You can't have my buyers/borrowers because they are going to Supreme Lending and my trusted lender, Joe Boggs.  However, you CAN go to work at Joe's office!

Movin' on UP ...way up NORTH!

Texas Real Estate Developers and Global Alternative Investment Firm Värde Partners Acquire Windsong Ranch in Prosper, Texas

​​​​Carey Marin at BusinessWire writes that Tellus Group, a joint venture of Vä​​rde Partners and developers Craig Martin and David Blom, has purchased the Windsong Ranch from the Terra Verde Group. 

The 2,030-acre master-planned​ community is at 1001 Windsong Pkwy. S. At full build-out, the community will have 3,100 single-family homes, 600 acres of open green space, and 150 acres of mixed-use development. 

It will be the first North Texas development to offer​ a Crystal Lagoon (I bet the folks in Rowlett are pretty jealous). The five-acre lagoon will open in spring 2019.

Homes will be priced from the $200,000s to over $1 million. Builders include American Legend Homes, Belclaire Homes, Britton Homes, Chesmar Homes, Darling Homes, Drees Custom Homes, Grenadier Homes, Highland Homes, Huntington Homes, and MainVue Homes.

DFW home sales see first Y-O-Y decline in nearly two years

 CHILL OUT!

Steve Brown at the Dallas Morning News says that North Texas home sales actually fell 3% in June, marking the first year-over-year decline in almost two years. 

Last month, 10,754 preowned single-family homes were sold, according to data from the Real Estate Center and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems. 

With June's decline, preowned home sales are up just 1 percent so far this year compared with 2017's record sales. 

Median home sales prices were up 7 percent over the year, hitting a record high of $273,000. ​

​There was a three-month supply of homes in the area. The average North Texas home was on the market for 38 days​. 

In June, there were 10,998 pending sales. There were 24,174 homes listed for sale in the metro, up 12 percent over the year.  

So, that's a cooling of the market.  Not a bursting bubble.  A corrective slowdown.  We think that is good news.

DFW Prices Still Rising: Appraisers Still Stupid

Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index shows that Dallas home prices still increasing, but slowing...

 

Steve Brown at the Dallas Morning News writes that Big D's home prices increased 6.9 percent year over year in December, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

That's slightly higher than the nation's 6.2 percent gain, but it was the smallest percentage price rise for Dallas ​home values in almost five years.

North Texas home price increases have been slowing for months after hitting record levels in 2017.

A combination of  larger home inventories and buyer push back against high prices has slowed the rate of area property appreciation, analysts say.

In contrast to the proven reputation of the S&P index, you can find a random residential appraiser who will tell you home sales are slowing or stable.  Why?  Well, most appraisers are just involved in a transaction to get paid.  Paid through an archaic and federally supported not-needed dogma that is supposed to protect the buyer.  See, the lender has to get an appraisal so that he can resale the loan on the back side to investors but according to the too-influential FHA guidelines.

The appraiser who takes his job too seriously and refuses to allow for market pressure is a guy who think his shoulders alone can carry the burden of controlling the free market.

Appraisers... who needs 'em?  Your broker matters.