North Texas home sales fell by 8% in November.
It was the biggest year-over-year sales decline in more than seven years.
Real estate agents sold 7,502 preowned single-family homes in the area last month, according to preliminary data from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.
With November's sales decline, total purchases of properties through the real estate agents' multiple listing service are down 1% for the first 11 months of 2018.
That's the first such dip in local home sales since the Great Recession.
But even with the slowdown, 2018 is on track to be North Texas' second best year on record for preowned home sales.
"We were racing down the highway at 80 miles per hour and now we are doing 65," said Ted Wilson, principal with Dallas housing analyst Residential Strategies Inc.
Wilson blames the shift in the Dallas-Fort Worth home market on rising interest rates.
"Higher mortgage rates have made housing more expensive this year," he said. "We've seen interest rates climb quite a bit in the second half of the year.
"And that's has put a lot of question in people's minds about where the market is."
The increase in finance costs since last year has added almost 15% to the month payments on a home.
At the same time, home costs in the area have jumped by more than 40% in the last five years.
Home price increases have slowed dramatically in North Texas in recent months.
Median house prices in the area rose by only 3% in November from a year ago — one of the lowest appreciation rates in years.
Wilson doesn't spot the makings of a home price crash in North Texas.
"A lot of people are incorrectly assuming that the prices in this market are going to drop," he said. "We don't see any big bubble bursting."
Along with the slowdown in sales, the number of houses listed with real estate agents in the area has risen by almost a quarter this year from November 2017.
And the average time it takes to sell a house through the multiple listing services has grown by 10% over since last year.
"There is a bit more inventory out there and things aren't moving as fast as they were," Wilson said.
Even so, less than a 3-month supply of preowned homes was for sale in North Texas in November. A 6-month supply is considered a normal market.
The declines in DFW home sales and slower price appreciation so far is having a bigger impact on consumers attitudes than pocketbooks, analysts said.
"I am more concerned about the psychological impact of not-so-rosy housing news than I am about the actual underlying fundamentals of the housing market in the Dallas-Fort Worth market," said Daren Blomquist, top economist with Attom Data Solutions. "Certainly the data shows that the market has gotten somewhat overheated and is due for a slowdown, but that slowdown should just be a chance for the market to catch its breath rather than a trigger for a panic attack.
"Jobs and people are still moving to the Dallas-Fort Worth area in large numbers, which ultimately should keep demand for housing solid," Blomquist said. "But the psychology of the market is more of a wildcard and could result in a bigger slowdown or correction."