New-home sales in Dallas-Fort Worth continue to decline, according to the latest quarterly market report from Metrostudy, released Wednesday.
Builders closed sales on 3,505 new homes from April to June, 26 percent less than the second quarter of 2010, when the federal tax credits for first-time home buyers expired, Metrostudy said.
Home sales are up nearly 9 percent, though, from the first quarter of 2011, typically a slow period.
Quarterly sales last peaked in the third quarter of 2007, when 10,037 homes were sold.
Moreover, builders started construction on 3,589 houses in the second quarter, down 22 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
When compared with the first quarter of 2011, home starts in the second quarter are up 18 percent, according to Metrostudy.
“It appears the first quarter of 2011 may be the low point in home-building activity after the home buyer tax credits expired last year,” said David Brown, director of Metrostudy’s Dallas-Fort Worth office. “We are beginning to see signs the housing market is slowly coming off the bottom after the drop-off in sales that began in May of last year.”
The inventory of completed new homes at the end of June was 8,658, down 25 percent from the end of June 2010, Metrostudy said.