North Texas home sales slid in April as buyers sheltered in place from the pandemic.
Home purchases in the area were down 17% from a year ago — the biggest such decline in nine years.
April's significant drop in North Texas home purchases is the first statistical evidence of the impact of COVID-19 on the area's housing market.
Through the first three months of 2020, home sales were up 9% from the same period last year. But April's decline wiped out most of those gains.
Through the first four months of the year. North Texas real estate agents have sold 30,973 homes, up a scant 1% from a year ago, according to data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.
April's home purchases mostly reflect houses that were put under contract in March and late February in the early days of the pandemic.
But local housing analysts are hoping last month's declines are the worst the area sees.
"For the past three weeks, since Gov. [Greg] Abbott announced the reopening of business in Texas, builders have reported much improved sales, many getting back close to original weekly sales plans," said Ted Wilson, principal with Dallas-based housing analyst Residential Strategies. "If existing home sales follow this pattern, my projection would be that April will be the low point, with some slight improvement in May and June."
Pending home sales — houses under contract but not yet sold — are down 22% from April 2019 levels.
Along with the drop in sales, fewer people are putting their homes on the market.
New single-family home listings are down 26% from where they were a year ago. And total inventory of homes on the market is 13% lower.
"Sellers are sitting on the sidelines, and not because of the fear of not selling," said Paige Shipp, vice president of market research at CDCG Asset Management. "People weren't having friends over during the quarantine, so the last thing people wanted were strangers in their homes.
"Without adequate supply, we will see a drop in sales in the next few months," Shipp said. "I don't think we're really going to know for some time if the slowing sales is a reflection of a lack of demand or more of a pause."
The job losses from the pandemic have pushed the economy into a steep recession. And the jury is still out how quickly the economy will cover as things start to open up.
"While I don't expect the market to get back to pre-COVID pace in the next few weeks, there are numerous reports of 'green shoots' from real estate agents and homebuilders," Shipp said. "New listings are getting good foot traffic, and buyers are visiting model homes as they slowly begin to open their doors.
"While I'm hopeful this early activity will translate to sales and closings, the spike in unemployment and tighter lending requirements will impact housing," she said. "But, we won't know the extent for a few more months or even longer."
Even with the downturn in sales, median home sales prices in the more than two dozen North Texas counties included in the survey were still 5% higher than a year earlier.
But year-over-year sales prices were down sharply in some neighborhoods.
Median prices fell 35% from April 2019 levels in the Park Cities and were down 14% in Irving.
The latest forecasts call for flat to slightly lower home prices this year in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Higher-priced neighborhoods also saw some of the biggest sales declines. In the Park Cities, home sales in April were 40% lower than a year ago, and sales were down 43% in North Dallas.
Sales were down 41% year-over-year in Coppell and 44% in Allen.
