THE ALLMANAC

U.S. Home Sales Hit 15-Year High in 2021

U.S.: Existing U.S. home sales were down last month, but overall sales for 2021 increased 8.5% to a 15-year high. The National Association of Realtors says the decline at the close of the year ended a three-month streak of gains and was tied primarily to low inventory. Last month, total existing-home sales dropped 4.6% from November to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.18 million. That December 2021 decrease also was a 7.1% drop from the 6.65 million figure in December 2020. The association’s analysts believe continued low inventory and higher interest rates will slow sales in the months ahead. Las Vegas recorded the greatest year-over-year median list price growth at 32.4% in December. Austin came in at 28.8%, and Tampa came in third at 25.4%. Austin, however, also topped the list in the number of homes that had prices reduced in December compared to December 2020.

DFW: Area single-family home rents have spiked again. In a new survey, CoreLogic says that Dallas-area home rent prices were up 15% in November, compared to the same period in 2020. And that number was higher than the national average of 11.5%. The median rent for a single-family home in the Dallas area was about $1,900. The new survey, which also includes condominiums, notes that the November 2021 increase was three times higher compared to November 2020 and that rents for higher-priced homes showed the highest increases. Across the country, Miami had the highest increase among the top 20 metro areas at 33%, followed by Phoenix at 19.4%. Washington, D.C., at 5.4%, had the lowest increase.

DFW: Collin County continues its median-sales price lead across the area. At the close of the year, the median sales price in the county topped $460,000, a 26% increase from the end of 2020. The average median single-family sales price for North Texas is $353,000. Denton County at $410,000 and Rockwall County at $405,000 follow Collin County with the highest median sales prices. Sales in both in Collin and Rockwall counties were down in the month of December. In Kaufman County, home sales were up 17% in December from December 2020. Area real estate agents were involved in 117,692 single-family sales in 2021.

DFW: Mesquite keeps adding business parks. The east side of the Metroplex has seen an increase in activity in industrial parks in the past year. Now there’s word that Arizona-based Creation Equity will break ground on a 555,000-plus-square-foot facility near Interstate 635 and U.S. Highway 80. The project, a partnership with Crow Holdings, will contain three buildings. North Texas leads the nation in industrial space construction with more than 30 million square feet.

LA LA LAND: Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis finally sold their Beverly Hills mansion, but they didn’t make any money on it. After going on the market for $14 million in May 2020 and after multiple price cuts, the couple sold the five-bedroom, five-and-a-half bath, 7,350-square-foot East Coast traditional home for $10.35 million earlier this month. That sales price was a 26% cut from the last marked-down price of $11.3 million in November 2021. They bought the property in 2014 for $10.21 million. Don’t worry. They won’t be out on the street. The couple already has built a custom modern farmhouse nearby.

COPYRIGHT © 2020. Allie Beth Allman & Associates, a HomeServices of America, Inc. company. All Rights Reserved.