Dallas among top U.S. markets for home price increases

DALLAS – Denver, Miami and Dallas are leading the country in home price gains. Dallas-area prices were 8.1 percent higher in January 2015 than in January 2014, according to the latest Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller Home Price Index.

Nationwide, prices were up 4.5 percent in the Case-Shiller survey. Dallas’ year-over-year price gains in January were the largest since early 2014.

Home prices in North Texas are now at a record high, Dallas prices in the Case-Shiller index are now 13 percent ahead of where they were at the peak of the housing market before the recession.

Even with continued low mortgage rates, many potential buyers are being priced out of the market.

Higher home prices in Dallas could eventually make the area less attractive to relocating workers, according to Mark Dotzour, an economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

“That’s been our comparative advantage for the last 30 years,” said Dotzour. “Our cost of living has been so much lower that the employers can successfully bring people here at a moderate wage level and that allows them to stay competitive in the global marketplace.”

Even with an almost 30 percent rise in Dallas-area home prices in six years, residential costs are still slightly below the nationwide median, prices are still well below what they are in many coastal cities.

“We’ve gone from super-affordable to nicely affordable,” Dotzour said.

Dallas-area home prices are currently rising at almost twice the long-term average rate, driven by a shortage of supply and an annual population growth of more than 100,000.