Two big pieces of news — foreclosure rates and and median sales prices for single family homes. Neither is especially encouraging, but keep in mind that even the local numbers that are being reported are for the entire Dallas-Fort Worth area. As noted in our Advocate Home Price Snapshot, values in the four neighborhoods that we tracked are holding up much better.
Nationally, RealtyTrac reported that home foreclosures nationwide are up 55 percent over July 2007 and up eight percent from June of this year. Texas had the sixth most filings in the country, but the Dallas-Fort Worth area was not among the 50 cities with the highest foreclosure rates. One disquieting piece of information about foreclosures from the National Association of Realtors: Foreclosures and short sales are accounting for about one-third of home transactions nationally.
Home prices nationally fell 7.6 percent in the second quarter this year, said the Realtors trade group. Home prices in the Dallas area, which includes Fort Worth and the Mid-Cities, dropped 3.5 percent. According to the group’s index, home prices in DFW are back to where they were at the end of 2007.
