North Texas builders working to meet first-time buyer demand

​​DALLAS – ​​​New homes priced for first-time buyers are hard to find these days, but some North Texas builders are working to change that.

Centex Homes, D.R. Horton, LGI Homes and other builders still construct houses priced under $200,000. Buyers just might have to drive a little farther to find them. Centex is building homes in that price bracket​ in Little Elm and Paloma Creek.

Lower-​priced new homes are in short supply thanks largely to labor shortages and higher costs for building materials and land. Prices for new homes rose by more than 10 percent this year.

“That’s our number one issue the builders are facing — affordability and how to keep their prices down,” Residential Strategies Inc. Housing Analyst Ted Wilson told the Dallas Morning News. “There are still some older building lots around that are priced lower, but those are going away.

“A new house for about $190,000 is pretty much the bottom rung in the market,” he said. “It’s getting very difficult for them to find a home lot priced under $40,000.”

In addition, many builders abandoned the first-time home market after the recession because tougher lending standards reduced the number of buyers. The number of first-time homebuyers in the market remains at a historic low.