Dallas has landed on the list of U.S. cities seeing the biggest increase in home purchase contracts this year.
The Dallas area ranked fifth among the major markets with the largest year-over-year gains in home purchase contracts, according to a report by Meyers Research. Through April, Dallas' homebuying contracts were running 8% ahead of where they were in the first five months of 2018, according to the California-based housing analyst.
Meyers Research analysts credit rising interest rates with pushing more buyers into the housing market this spring.
"The buyer urgency created by constant housing news coverage and ever-changing housing payments from rising rates is unmistakable," the research firm says in a new report. "We pulled contract sales data to see the biggest year-to-date winners of 2018, which include Denver, San Diego, and Phoenix."
Denver had the biggest increase in home purchase contracts of any of the cities Meyers Research looked at — up 24% from the first five months of 2017. Contracts in San Diego and Phoenix were up more than 10%.
North Texas home sales were up 4% through May, according to data from local real estate agents. And sales of pre-owned single-family homes jumped 9% last month compared with purchases a year ago.
While home sales in the area are still growing at a healthy clip, the rate of home price increase in North Texas has slowed dramatically from year ago.
Median home sales prices in the area are about 5% higher so far this year, compared with a double-digit gain in the same period of 2017.
