The number of clicks for Dallas-Fort Worth home searches is surging.
Of course, it could be just lookie-loos surfing the net.
But the more than 30% jump in on line property views for DFW is more likely another sign that the local housing market is recovering from the worst of the pandemic, according to the folks at Realtor.com.
Nationwide home searches on the top home marketing sites are also up significantly from a year ago.
And while listings remain down, there are growing signs that the home market is bouncing back from the worst of the pandemic.
"The general sentiment from consumer surveys is that now is not a good time to sell a home because of COVID, economic uncertainty and social unrest, but the data is saying the opposite," Danielle Hale, chief economist for Realtor.com, said in a statement. "Home prices are back to their pre-COVID pace, and we're seeing listings spend slightly less time on the market than last week."
The housing market still needs more sellers to meet the surge in demand, she said. "Looking forward, if we don't get the inventory we need, we'll see prices rise even more and homes sell faster later this summer."
Realtor.com researchers took a close look at the listings for the DFW area as of June 6.
They found that the number of new-home sales listings for the area was down about 20% year-over-year. And median home sales listing prices for DFW were 1.4% below where they were in June 2019.
Nationwide median home asking prices are 4.3% higher than a year ago.
"Price gains have accelerated rapidly in recent weeks with inventory on the decline and buyer interest on the rise," according to Realtor.com. "Locally, 89 of 100 metros saw asking prices increase over last year."
DFW isn't in that group.
North Texas home sales prices were down about 1% in May from last year's levels, according to data from local real estate agents.
Total home sales in the area fell 25% in June — on top of the 17% April decline.
But with pending home sales for North Texas up 15% year-over-year, analysts are hoping that June's housing market will look better.
