{"id":513885,"date":"2026-01-13T20:40:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/513885\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T20:40:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T20:40:12","slug":"dallas-fort-worth-homebuilders-saw-weak-demand-in-2025-will-2026-be-different","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/513885\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas-Fort Worth homebuilders saw \u2018weak\u2019 demand in 2025. Will 2026 be different?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dallas-Fort Worth homebuilders<\/a> dealt with persistently weak housing demand in 2025 compared to the recent highs of the post-COVID boom. <\/p>\n

Weak job growth<\/a> and an oversupply of finished, vacant homes contributed to issues for builders last year.<\/p>\n

Early reports show an uptick in buyer traffic to start this year, though one of the region\u2019s largest builders says it expects 2026 to play out similar to last year.<\/p>\n

Data from Dallas-based Residential Strategies Inc. <\/a>shows builders started nearly 8,400 new homes in the final three months of 2025, down nearly 18% from the same period in 2024.<\/p>\n

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For the year, builders started 41,222 for-sale homes, a more than 12% decline from 2024.<\/p>\n

Home closings also fell. Builders closed on roughly 10,500 homes in the year\u2019s final quarter. That\u2019s a 5.5% drop from the end of 2024.<\/p>\n

Builders closed more than 45,000 homes in 2025, a 5.6% drop from 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilders have been able to sell to a backlog of pent-up demand in D-FW, but affordability challenges have required price discounting, rate buy-downs, and other incentives to convert would-be homebuyers,\u201d Ted Wilson, the firm\u2019s principal, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Wilson pointed to \u201cweak job growth\u201d as a key negative impact. Citing Texas Workforce Commission data, Wilson said D-FW added roughly 18,500 net new jobs for the 12-month period ending in November. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s well below the 95,000 average recorded from 2010 to 2024. Slowdowns in domestic and international relocation has hurt the new home market, he said.<\/p>\n

Wilson added that buyer sales flattened in 2025\u2019s fourth quarter. There have been reports of an uptick in traffic to start the year, but builder profits remain under \u201cimmense pressure\u201d this year.<\/p>\n

Other key challenges for North Texas builders included an oversupply of vacant lots and speculative homes \u2014 houses built without a particular buyer in mind.<\/p>\n

At the end of 2025, there were 12,317 finished vacant homes, representing a 3.27-month supply. A 2.5 to three-month supply is considered equilibrium.<\/p>\n

Builders responded by delaying the start of new homes to adjust to slowing demand, and they were forced to discount prices to shed unsold inventory, said Cassie Gibson, the firm\u2019s vice president.<\/p>\n

North Texas had roughly 110,450 vacant developed lots, representing a 32.2-month supply. Equilibrium is considered to be 24 months, the firm said.<\/p>\n

Many builders adopted aggressive growth plans two years ago when market conditions were favorable. Now, those plans have led to an overdevelopment of vacant lots.<\/p>\n

Roughly 68,600 lots remain in the development pipeline. Residential Strategies projects D-FW lot supply will continue to increase during 2026, surpassing a 40-month supply by year-end.<\/p>\n

Despite the surplus, select areas \u2014 particularly infill locations \u2014 are ideal for development due to limited competition and the potential for stronger profitability, Wilson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBuilder appetite for new lots has waned considerably in recent months,\u201d he said. \u201cWith many submarkets oversaturated, we are seeing instances of lot impairments and expect downward pressure on lot prices in 2026.\u201d <\/p>\n

Don Dykstra, co-founder of Bloomfield Homes, said his firm closed on just over 1,800 homes last year. He expects 2026 to look a lot like last year, especially the second half, when conditions were favorable for buyers. This year will likely be \u201cjust okay\u201d for builders, he said.<\/p>\n

Dykstra said his firm will likely work through their excess inventory by March, and Bloomfield Homes will be starting more houses again at the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would definitely say we\u2019re in a buyer\u2019s market right now, lots of incentives, lots of rate buy-downs and lots of inventory to choose from. …It feels like prices are solidifying at a new, discounted level,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The existing home market saw flat sales and dropping prices. There were nearly 92,000 existing home sales in North Texas for the 12-month period ending in November, up 1.39% from the prior year, according to data from Texas A&M\u2019s Texas Real Estate Research Center.<\/p>\n

There were 32,300 listings, up 12.2% from 2024. The median price of existing home sales was $325,000 in November \u2014 down from $342,000 a year earlier and the lowest median price since January 2022, the firm said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith more inventory available, homes are taking longer to sell, prompting sellers to become increasingly willing to discount prices,\u201d Gibson said. <\/p>\n

A glimmer of hope \u2014 the 30-year mortgage rate. For the week ending Jan. 8, Freddie Mac reported an average rate of 6.16%.<\/p>\n

Builders remain optimistic that the 30-year rate will drift below 6% this year. Rates below 6% help buyers overcome affordability issues, the firm said.<\/p>\n

Wilson projects 2026 to play out in a similar manner. Builders are expected to start roughly 38,000 homes and close around 40,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is very clear that builder profits will be much lower in 2026 compared to 2025 as DFW remains a buyer\u2019s market,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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Complaints over crime, parking and aging buildings have major employers leaving and property owners wondering what can be done to reverse the trend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas-Fort Worth homebuilders dealt with persistently weak housing demand in 2025 compared to the recent highs of the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":513886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5138],"tags":[5229,7583,1596,7371,7372,4329,10204,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-513885","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fort-worth","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-collin-county","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-fort-worth","12":"tag-fortworth","13":"tag-real-estate","14":"tag-residential-real-estate","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115889729012000277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/513886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}