Thursday, March 28, 2024 Mar 28, 2024
43° F Dallas, TX
Advertisement
Publications

Homebuilding: Grinding to a Halt?

By D Magazine |

If there’s any business in Dallas seething with rumors right now it’s homebuilding. The grapevine is humming with stories about what builders are pulling out of the market, what price homes are selling and where the hot markets are. Figures compiled by M/PF Research Inc. shed a little light on the subject.

Apartment and town-house construction is practically dead, but single family homebuilding in North Dallas and Collin County is really moving. In South Dallas County, it is almost non-existent.

The hottest housing market today is Piano, where preliminary figures estimate at least 500 families moved into new homes this summer. About half of those homes were priced between $40,000 and $50,000.

The next hottest market is Garland, where $25,000-$50,000 homes are selling rapidly in South Garland, while North Garland’s $30,000-$40,000 homes are moving well.

Filling out the general housing surge to the north are Richardson, where most new homes sell for $35,000-$65,000, and The Colony, a huge Fox & Jacobs development near Lake Dallas, with homes at practically any price.

While home buying to the north is active, to the south it is barely perceptible, contributing to the stagnation of South Dallas County. DeSoto had 1,170 lots ready for building last spring, while only 23 homes were under construction. Lancaster and Cedar Hill were just as bad. Lancaster had 713 developed lots with only 11 homes going up and Cedar Hill had 583 lots ready for homes and 11 houses under construction. The only substantial building activity occurring in the area was in Duncanville, buoyed by Red Bird Mall.

Statistics kept on electrical connections by Dallas Power & Light indicate housing starts in the City of Dallas are off considerably. Only 360 single family houses were started during the first half of 1975, compared with 720 starts during the first half of 1974. Many of these homes are expensive, custom built. Townhouse construction in the city plummeted from 116 starts in the first half of 1974 to seven townhouse starts during the first half of 1975.

Rumors persist that two moderate sized Dallas builders are pulling out of the market. Spokesmen at both U.S. Home and Wood Brothers deny that their companies are getting out of the market; just cutting back staff and building,they say. Wood Brothers decided not to build on quite a few of its lots, so it sold them to other builders. Wood Brothers has also abandoned the custom of selling its own homes, and now has outside realtors showing them.

Perhaps the most interesting part of M/PF’s report is the price of housing currently being constructed in the Dallas area. Here are the figures:

Per Cent of All

Price Homes Built in

Range Dallas Area

Under $25,000 2.2

$25,000-$30,000 11.0

$30,000-$35,000 12.6

$35,000-$40,000 19.0

$40,000-$50,000 20.6

$50,000-$65,000 16.0

$65,000-$100,000 15.6

Over $100,000 3.0

Related Articles

Image
Travel

Is Fort Worth Really ‘The New Austin’?

The Times of London tells us it's now the coolest city in Texas.
Image
Dallas 500

Meet the Dallas 500: Chakri Gottemukkala, o9 Solutions

The o9 solutions leader talks about garnering a $3.7 billion valuation, growing 10x over the next few years, and how the company is innovating.
Image
Local News

An Early Look at 2026 FIFA World Cup Logistics

The World Cup matches will be held in Arlington, but Dallas will be home to a great deal of team and fan experiences. We're getting an early look at what that will look like.
Advertisement