Dallas Fed: Texas single-family housing to regain momentum

TEXAS – Apartment construction in Texas will likely moderate, while the state’s single-family housing market may regain traction in 2015, according to the latest issue of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas’ Southwest Economy.

The market for single-family housing in Texas lost some momentum in 2014, with record-high prices, depleted existing-home inventories and declining affordability contributing to relatively slow growth in sales, according to Dallas Fed economist Laila Assanie.

Improved access to credit and an expanding supply of new homes for first-time and lower-income buyers will be essential for the state’s housing market to strengthen in 2015, Assanie notes.

Entry-level buyers have been squeezed in recent years by rising home prices and difficult-to-obtain mortgages, and builders have moved away from constructing entry-level homes in favor of higher-priced move-up products.

However, new guidelines from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that took effect on Dec. 1 revise lending standards, including the elimination of a requirement that a borrower put 20 percent down.

Rapidly rising home prices in Texas could pose a threat to Texas economic growth, making the state less competitive for business, according to Mark Dotzour, chief economist and director of research at the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

“I feel that this is one of Texas’ most pressing economic development issues,” said Dotzour. “We need to build more homes to keep the supply high enough to prevent prices from getting so expensive that new workers choose not to relocate to Texas.”