"The Condo Guy" aka Alan Shaffer Realtor in Dallas

The end of the year is often a tough stretch for the real estate market, no matter the location. Families being in full travel mode and having vacation time takes away from the amount of attention paid to a housing and condominium search. While many U.S. cities experienced routine fourth quarter obstacles in the late months of 2011, Dallas wasn’t one of them.

Within Dallas home and condo sales, the recent statistics have seemingly started to swing in favor of potential buyers. The current median listing price has dropped nearly seven percent from mid 2011, when it was near $224,000. Currently sitting at $214,000 the present median listing price is also five percent lower than November’s numbers.

As apartment rental rates continue to go up, they could spell good news for real estate professionals and home sellers throughout the area. Dallas apartments are currently going through a hike in both one and two bedroom statistics. Both figures have experienced a three percent jump since late last year. Sellers could be overly excited with these figures because potential buyers are often deciding between continuing renting a place and going to buy their first homes.

Besides rental rates that continue to jump throughout the country, the record low mortgage rates are good news for potential buyers and sellers. Potential buyers can now take advantage of mortgage rates that continue to drop to unseen levels throughout the second half of 2011. In the Dallas area, a 30 year fixed rate mortgage is currently at 4.252 APR. In perspective, this number is considerably low, even when compared to mid year when the rates were at the 4.75 level for 30 year fixed mortgages.

Buyers can also currently take advantage of more time to decide on a home purchases. Time on the market in the Dallas area has risen in the past two months considerably over the first 10 months of 2011. Right now, a potential buyer has about 20 days more than what had been seen throughout the year. This extra time can give families and interested individuals a little more time to make a qualified buying decision in the end.  

One of the only drawbacks the Dallas real estate market saw within the last few months of the year was a cut in new listings in November and December. Even though it had been expected, there was still a hike in new listings from November into December, which could signal a more solid start to the 2012 year. Despite this declining statistic late in the year, the other trends could certainly have an impact on the Dallas area real estate market for the outset of 2012.

alan@thecondoguy.com

http://www.TheCondoGuy.com

http://www.AlanShaffer.com

Named by D Magazine as "One of the Best Realtors in Dallas"