10 Dallas-Fort Worth Cities Unlock Spots on New List of Top U.S. Home Markets

At least by one measure, the Dallas-Fort Worth homebuying market is still on fire. Cities in DFW make up one-third of the top 30 cities in WalletHub’s new ranking of the best places in the U.S. to buy a house.

Frisco, Allen, and McKinney hold the top three spots. In fact, only one Texas city outside DFW makes the top 30: fourth-ranked Austin.

To determine the best local real estate markets in the U.S., WalletHub compared 300 cities of various sizes across 17 key indicators of housing-market attractiveness and economic strength. Factors ranged from home-price appreciation to job growth.

Here’s how DFW cities rank among the top 30:

  • Frisco, No. 1
  • Allen, No. 2
  • McKinney, No. 3
  • Denton, No. 8
  • Richardson, No. 10
  • Fort Worth, No. 11
  • Carrollton, No. 17
  • Plano, No. 19
  • Grand Prairie, No. 23
  • Irving, No. 27

Recent data shows that although the DFW real estate market may be desirable, it is shifting.

The median sale price of a single-family home in DFW stood at $421,000 in July, up 15 percent compared with the same time last year but down 3 percent from a month earlier. The number of home sales dropped 14 percent from last July to this July. The data comes from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.

“It’s still a seller’s market,” Fort Worth real estate agent Elizabeth McCoy told The Texas Tribune. “But certainly we’re seeing buyers be able to have a little bit more choice. And that’s such a good thing.”

In a sign of the regional market’s continuing strength, the median list price for a DFW home landed at $461,000 in August, up 16.7 percent from the same time last year, according to a report released September 1 by Realtor.com. Among the state’s four major metro areas, only DFW saw a double-digit increase in the median list price during that period.

Also, the median number of days a DFW home spent on the market in August (36) was the lowest among the four major metros in Texas, according to Realtor.com. However, 26.3 percent of homes for sale in DFW dropped their asking prices in August.

Source: Dallas Culture Map