DALLAS — Recently, we toured some Dallas neighborhoods packed with seven-digit dwellings. Our tour guide was Steve Habgood, Managing Partner at Hewitt and Habgood Realty Group with Dave Perry Miller Real Estate.
Habgood put into words what we were seeing on one luxury lot after another: "There is a lot of wealth in the North Texas region”.
Habgood showed us one home in Kessler Park.
“That is going to be at $1,190,000," Habgood said.
It’s not as big of an ask as it looks at first glance. More homes priced a million dollars or more have been selling in DFW in recent years than any other place in the state.
“Every home around me has sold for 30 or 40 percent they were originally valued at," said Yogi Patel, who is about to upgrade and can’t wait to price his current residence in University Park between $1.7 million and $1.9 million.
He is eager to sell his home because higher dollar homes are spending fewer days on the market, Habgood said.
"Interestingly, statistically, the days on market are going down," Habgood said.
Patel says he is seeing evidence of that all around him.
"Actually I get shocked when I see a sign out for three or four months," Patel said.
In last two years combined, 3,716 homes costing a million or more have sold here. That’s a staggering 27.6% rise, as home sales overall have started to fall off a bit. Even though he deals with luxury properties a lot, Habgood said the trend has been somewhat surprising to him.
“The million-plus market has been doing as good or better than all of the other segments in the marketplace," Habgood said.
Prospective buyer Cathy Foyt may keep that momentum going. We were there with her as she looked at a $1.995 million home, with a unique disappearing living room wall that opens up the house to connect seamlessly to a deck and pool.
“I am a sucker for this," Foyt said. "I love this.”
Her budget of up to $2.5 million affords some features and finished you don’t find in the average home.
She and her husband have good reason to buy now.
"I am a relatively new empty nester and we just don’t need as much space," Foyt said.
But why have so many others been purchasing luxury properties? Habgood believes many buyers are coming from the much costlier coasts.
"If you are coming from the east coast or west coast and you see our price values – you are saying to yourself this is a real value," Habgood said.
Perhaps it’s the influx of executives relocating from the coasts with their companies, or savvy investors getting in before interest rates go up more, or wealthier buyers feeling flush because of their tax cuts, or all of the above.
Whatever the reason, look out down below--because the fact that so many of them are selling is making the lower priced houses around them rise in value too, Habgood said.
"The fact that homes of these values are coming in to the marketplace is pulling up the value of other homes," Habgood said.