Rising interest rates and higher prices are helping cool the red-hot housing market in the Fort Worth area.
Inventory of homes for sale in Fort Worth nudged upward in June due to the higher cost of buying and financing a home, according to the latest data from the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, the Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University and Texas Realtors.
Rising inventory helped moderate median home prices in Fort Worth, which dipped from $367,000 in May to $363,000 in June. Median home prices declined even more in Parker County, dropping from $473,900 in May to $450,000 in June.
However, median home prices across Tarrant County and in Johnson County increased slightly from May to June.
“We are at that time of the year when we see home prices at their peak, but recently we’ve seen more price reductions,” Shannon Ashkinos, president of the Greater Fort Worth Association of Realtors, said in a statement.
“This could be indicative of sellers continuing to try to overprice and the market making an adjustment,” Ashkinos said. “But it’s likely we’re headed toward a normalized market. The question is, what does that look like now?”
Inventory in June increased to 1.6 months, a half-month increase from May’s inventory of 1.1 month and a half-month from the June 2021 inventory of 1.1 month. The modest increase in June was still far below what is considered a balanced inventory of 6.5 months, according to the Texas A&M Real Estate Center.
Despite the recent moderation in home prices, the year-to-year data for June shows that Fort Worth’s median home price of $363,000 was 21 percent higher than the median home price of $300,000 in June 2021.
From year to year in June, Tarrant County’s median home price jumped 22.6 percent; Johnson County’s increased 23 percent; and Parker County rose 12.7 percent.
The latest data from the Re/Max National Housing Report shows that the Dallas-Fort Worth area led the nation with a 29.3 percent increase in the median home sale price between June 2021 and last month. Prices in DFW rose from $329,500 in June 2021 to $426,000 last month.
“It’s still a seller’s market and we’re still seeing homes selling for above asking price but it’s getting better because we have a little more inventory to work with,” said Moiri Brown, managing broker for Coldwell Banker Realty in Fort Worth. “In past months, when we had so little inventory, it was next to impossible to be able to get a buyer into a home.”
Despite modest improvements in the inventory and price moderation, 30-year mortgage rates have risen above 5 percent compared to an average of slightly below 3 percent a year ago.
The combination of higher mortgage rates and lingering high asking prices means some prospective buyers will still be priced out of the market, Brown said.
In June, 1,191 homes were sold in Fort Worth, down 7.6 percent from June 2021 and Tarrant County’s June sales of 2,488 homes was down 10.1 percent from a year earlier.
However, sales of 325 homes in Parker County in June was an increase of 24.5 percent from a year ago and Johnson County’s sale of 286 homes in June was a 13.9 percent increase over June 2021.