Blame it on the (lack of) rain: New home sales up

​DALLAS – North Texas homebuilders sold 7,035 single-family homes in first quarter 2016, 22 percent more than the previous year. Market experts say you can thank the local weatherman.

​​​"The strength of the market is tied to the better weather we had this first quarter," said Ted Wilson, principal of locally based Residential Strategies Inc. 

The good weather has boosted the number of homes constructed in the past 12 months to 29,084, a record level for the housing cycle.

The building industry, however, is still facing a labor shortage that is slowing new construction. It takes 6.8 months to build a single-family home in North Texas, even though historically​ it has taken closer to four months to deliver a home, Wilson said.

​​​The region has 51,127 vacant developed lots, representing a 21.1-month supply. Twenty-four months is considered a theoretical equilibrium by those in the industry.​ At the end of the first quarter, there were 34,141 home lots under development.