Realities of the Housing Market in DFW (McKinney, Rockwall: real estate, apartments)

[biafra4life]

I have been following with interest the experiences that people have expressed on this board about the buyers in the DFW housing market. Especially for those wanting a new construction home. The following is what I've gathered:

1) Build time has now been extended out due to shortages. What used to take 6-9 months to build is now taking closer to 12-18 months.
2) It used to be you signed a contract early in the process, and by the time the home was complete, your final contract would be fairly close to what you agreed to earlier on. Now builders are putting in price increases with increasing regularity, to where the final price can be substantially more than the early price.
3) There is very little inventory in new homes, so you cannot just walk in and get a spot. Builders are now taking bids for any newly completed homes and there is a waiting list.

I was talking to a coworker yesterday who said that according to her realtor (her husband's best friend who supposedly is very experienced, owns his own brokerage firm too) most of that was not correct. She could sign a contract for new construction and it would take 6-9 months, with no price increases. Now this is in Rockwall. Is that correct? Perhaps I had the wrong/outdated information.

[NTXPerson]

Based on personal experience. My family signed a contract for a new house through Drees in north McKinney in May 2021. They were told it wouldn't be complete until October 2022. They were also the last contract that Drees executed pre-building the home. Since May 2021, Drees is waiting to sell their homes in this community once the house is completed. Fast forward to today, the builder hasn't increased the price and they are now being told their house will be ready in June.

[Rakin]

I think it depends on if you are dealing with one of the good builders like Highland Homes or one of the lesser builders like Grand and Standard Pacific.

I don't think Highland does what you mention in OP and is one of the 3-4 Builders I would only trust.

[Leonard123]

I don't think #2 is happening any more. It was bad PR for the builders. Instead, they now follow #3. Even Highland is not doing build jobs although I don't know if they've resorted to auctions. Darling, American Legend, Pulte, and DR Horton are doing auctions.

Very few builders are doing build jobs, and those on a first-come-first-serve basis sell out of their allotment before anyone can even find out about them.

Things may be a little different around Rockwall.

[FreeVilley]

You have custom builders, spec builders and production builders. Each company in each class have different levels of access to capital and materials. There is no blanket explanation of how any process will work which why there is still some value in the market for professional Real Estate Agents who are in the market everyday, all over town, working with different builders/buyers/sellers that will have access to that information. Our "brother in laws" are all well intentioned but still have asymmetrical information.

[cipherv1]

Highland has ceased build jobs in the majority of communities they're in, selling inventory homes only through a purchase priority list, no auctions.

[denebj]

Highland is still doing non spec home in some communities.

We signed the contract with them December 2021 for one of their Northlake community. The house was supposed to be done in July / August 2021. We are closing end of this month LOL

They are expanding the next phase in our community and they are now doing split construction. Some are specs and some are non spec.

Price has not changed from what we signed up for ... Our floor plan is now selling in our community for $150k more.. Crazy.

[rabbit33]

Hey, they're having bidding wars to rent apartments now! It's just totally freaking nuts out there!

[Leonard123]

Originally Posted by denebj

Highland is still doing non spec home in some communities.

We signed the contract with them December 2021 for one of their Northlake community. The house was supposed to be done in July / August 2021. We are closing end of this month LOL

They are expanding the next phase in our community and they are now doing split construction. Some are specs and some are non spec.

Price has not changed from what we signed up for ... Our floor plan is now selling in our community for $150k more.. Crazy.

You signed a contract in December 2021 with an expected completion in July/August 2021.

Highland is not doing build jobs in their Northlake communities. I was out there a few months ago and couldn't figure out the attraction there, but it seems an enormous and growing segment of the population will gladly shell out a million or more for a cardboard box next to a dump if it's new.

[SyZ]

Originally Posted by Leonard123

You signed a contract in December 2021 with an expected completion in July/August 2021.

Highland is not doing build jobs in their Northlake communities. I was out there a few months ago and couldn't figure out the attraction there, but it seems an enormous and growing segment of the population will gladly shell out a million or more for a cardboard box next to a dump if it's new.

We get it, you hate new home builds and don't understand why people don't move to McKinney.