Sales & Marketing Council of the Dallas Builders Association Tells Us What Buyers Want in DFW Homes

We know Dallas-Fort Worth is the country’s second-busiest home building market, and we know that builders just cannot seem to get homes built quickly enough even though there have been 20,000 new home starts around here in the last 12 months. We heard it from the agents today loud and clear — more inventory !! — but Rome was not built in a day, and neither are houses.

Wood is only flying faster in Houston than it is in Dallas, and that’s just because they are bigger.

But even though home starts were up 14 percent in the third quarter, D-FW home building is not back to where it was seven years ago in the heat of a pre-recesssion market. According to David Brown of Metrostudy, Inc., Dallas home builders churned out 52,000 new homes in the course of one year, 2006. 52,000!

“I don’t think we will get back to the 52,000 starts in one year,” David Brown, who heads the Dallas office of housing analyst Metrostudy Inc., told Steve Brown — (sidenote) are they related?

“I believe a more normal market based upon our household and population growth is in the 30,000 to 33,000 range,” said David.

Brown (David) says we won’t be seeing the 52,000 point ’till at least 2015.

Metrostudy is forecasting that D-FW home starts will wind up at around 22,000 units this year.

Sounds good, but we need more. Thus I moderated a very interesting panel today of Real Estate experts from a swath across North Texas: Joe Atkins of Joe Atkins Realty, now the ONLY real estate agent with an office in downtown Dallas who also works a lot in Uptown, Keller Williams Frisco’s stellar Cindy Baglietto, Ebby’s Susan Conlon of Ebby/Willow Bend who’s got Plano covered, Marian D’Unger with ReMax Flower Mound and the author of “On The Level“, and Coldwell Banker’s Gerald Robertson, plus Sylvia Seabolt of The Dream Connectors who works all over the state of Texas.

In the audience were builders and developers, all of whom wanted to know, what do buyers want in new homes today and what the hec do these buyers “look like” these days?

Aside from the biggest challenges facing buyers today — higher price is one, appraisals two, and then increasing multiple offers – the buyer profile today is way different for first time homebuyers. From the National Association of Realtors: most first-time buyers now account for less than 30 percent of total U.S. home purchases. Yet DFW realtors say they are selling large family homes to these “youngsters”. The NAR also says sales of homes to affluent buyers or investors who pay all cash account for almost a third of the total market. That is mighty hard to compete with. Hence we have to think outside the box.

A few snippets from today’s hour-long panel with these pros:

-Buyers look for good schools, roomy laundry rooms and gas stoves. Even if they don’t have children, they know good schools help maintain property values.

-It sucks! The kitchen has changed dramatically and become the most important room in the house, even duplicating itself. South of LBJ, it’s a Pastry Kitchen, north of LBJ it’s a Curry Kitchen. If they don’t have a second kitchen off the kitchen, buyers want strong exhaust systems on their gas cooktops.

-Second masters gaining in popularity for in-laws or boomerang kids, possibly with separate exterior entrances.

-Golf course properties are still in demand (?)

-Buyers really like planned communities, preferably with activities directors who set up activities and events the whole family can enjoy. Great example: Darling’s Newman Village.

-Community amenities buyers like are waterparks, hike and bike trails, jogging trails, and a clubhouse.

-Folks who live in the ‘burbs, Frisco, Celina, Plano, want access to downtown Dallas: one client told Joe Atkins no more than a 45 minute commute.

-Quality of building technique really counts, consumers are better educated and pickier about home builders.

-Get ready to Feng Sui your homes! Ethnic buyers and buyers from other parts of the US have different preferences and fears. One buyer didn’t like the front door leading to the back door, or the staircase directly in front of the entry door. Something about good luck going upstairs…

Top U.S. homebuilding markets
Based on single-family homebuilding permits for the 12 months ending in August:
1. Houston	33,268
2. Dallas-Fort Worth	20,426
3. Washington, D.C.	13,755
4. Atlanta	13,407
5. Phoenix	12,393
6. Orlando, Fla.	8,984
7. Seattle	8,982
8. Austin	8,808
9. Charlotte, N.C.	8,458
10. New York metro	8,242
SOURCE: Metrostudy