DALLAS (Dallas Morning News) – High-end home sales have taken a hit
from the stumbling mortgage market, with million-dollar-plus home purchases
falling about 12 percent in the Dallas–Fort Worth area through August.
"The high-end market has been slow for the past year or more as the credit
markets have priced those mortgages higher than normal," said Dr. Jim Gaines,
research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University. "And
people who were stretching to buy the $1 million home instead of the $700,000
one they could really afford are now not able to make the stretch."
Purchases of homes between $800,000 and $1 million have taken an almost 25
percent downturn.
In the Park Cities, where homes average $1.2 million, the number of houses on
the market has grown 40 percent since August while sales have decreased about 16
percent. North Dallas listings are up while sales are down about 30 percent.