It’s no secret that I have a sick unique sense of humor. It even does mornings! This morning, bright and early, I was delighted to be a guest on Channel 4’s Good Day with Dan Godwin, who was sitting in for Tim Ryan. The topic was our hot hot real estate market, and homes selling so fast it is getting hard to even find them as a consumer. I love TV but it goes so gosh darn fast. I explained months/days on market (6 months being normal in a balanced market), how we are now at a couple months of inventory (MOI) in both Dallas and Collin Counties, way below normal, with price points edging upwards just about everywhere in the Dallas metro area. Unfortunately, we ran out of time — I couldn’t present this chart of sales stats:
Are you seeing that? In The Colony, there is now only a half month of real estate inventory, three quarters of a month in Richardson, and 1.2 in McKinney. Sales are up 15% in Plano and actually down in The Colony. Why? Not enough inventory to sell. Can’t build them fast enough.
Dallas, as you can see, is also hopping with a median price home now of almost $180,000 ($177,600). And Park Cities sales are up 14%.
Smokin’.
Then Dan asked me how consumers find homes in Seller’s markets like this one, where people buy almost overnight, for more than asking price, where there are now even bidding wars in the hot parts of town.
I spilled the Realtor’s secret sauce.
There is an old real estate adage that if you are looking for a home to buy in an established neighborhood where listings are like a needle in a haystack, you look for someone who’s ready to move. Ferrett out that house. The yard is a mess, the house is not well-kept, and there may be a ramp on the front porch indicating that the occupants need help walking. That house may come on the market sooner than later, especially if the older occupants plan to go to a nursing home or to a better life in heaven.
A little dark, yes, but then that’s the stark reality of real estate. One person’s misfortune in real estate can be another’s payday. Doesn’t anyone remember Tommy Vu, who, by the way, lives in Vegas.
Well, unfortunately, I offended some who are house-bound with ramps due to disability with my Saturday Night Live-type humor. That is not what I intended AT ALL. No no no! I’ve been in touch with a viewer who explained how hurtful it was for me to dump homes with ramps into such a category. She hopes folks won’t be knocking on her front door, looking for a sale, all because of the ramp on her doorstep. I don’t, either. And I think all the veterans who have ramps should be just fine.
For that I am so sorry. My own household is home to some new disabilities, and we almost had a ramp this Christmas when I had two people with knee issues in the house.
Of course, if anyone knocks on my door, thinking we are circling the drain so they can pounce on a listing, I’d probably conjure up the highest price I could for my house and say, SOLD, adios.
So if you watched the segment, please know I was trying to be funny. Little humor in the morning. Here at daltxrealestate.com we try to make real estate news as unboring as we can — that’s why we mix so much news with sizzle and sass. We spent the whole week thinking of local listings that would be perfect for Caitlyn Jenner — know any?
“Candy is quite fun and most entertaining, with her spicy updates on the insane market now !!!” says one agent. Spicy, I like that. But sometimes spicy gets me in trouble.
I told my new friend I want to follow up with a post on making home living easier for the handicapped or wheel chair bound: stay tuned for that one.
And if you think that waiting for homes to come available due to death is mean and cruel, let me direct you to a comment made today concerning our Tuesday $200:
This was my Aunt Lena’s home. She died last Thanksgiving at 94. She was a forward thinking stylish woman and would be so proud to know that her house was admired and respected like this. Thank you for recognizing her home.
Life is all about cycles. Some come sooner rather than later, some come so tragically fast they REALLY test your faith. Homes, too, have a cycle: a home can house a family for 20 to 30 years, until the principle matriarchs die, then another set of proud owners comes in. The house gets a whole new cycle of life and love with a new family.
I would be so proud to be the person who made Aunt Lena and her home happy by maintaining and beautifying the asset, even if I had to knock on a few doors to find it.
