Each Friday, Robbie Briggs, CEO of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty, writes about luxury, trends, business and more in the advertising pages of the Mansion section of The Wall Street Journal. Below is his letter of October 21, 2022.
FROM MY PERSPECTIVE
To hear the media tell it, housing markets are on the rapid decline. In some places, they are going down — but real estate is, by nature, local, and in North Texas the data tells a different story.
If 2021 was the best-performing market in recent memory and 2020 kicked off that unprecedented period with the onset of the pandemic, then the last market we can consider normal was in 2019. If we compare key indicators back to that year, our market is quite healthy. For Dallas County, the sales volume of homes was $9.7 billion for the first nine months of 2022 — up 38 percent from the same period in 2019. For Tarrant County, that total is $8.8 billion, a 36 percent increase. Median selling prices have risen significantly, too: Dallas County’s is up 48 percent from 2019 and Tarrant County’s is up 49 percent.
If we do enter a recession, our market should be somewhat insulated, partly because we benefit from the continued attractiveness of North Texas for people relocating from all over. The Dallas Regional Chamber’s five-year outlook is strong: a population increase of 615,000 and a jobs increase of 439,000. Demographers project that North Texas will grow to 10 million people sometime in the 2030s, surpassing Chicago to become America’s third-largest metro area.
Won’t that be something? In the meantime, we’ve analyzed the current real estate climate for you in our latest Market Moves report. It’s all yours at briggsfreeman.com/market-moves. I think you’ll like what you learn.
Speaking of North Texas, get ready to meet some of the amazing agents of Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty on Saturday, October 22, when our new issue of RESIDE magazine is inside select North Texas subscriber copies of The Wall Street Journal. You can enjoy it digitally, too, at briggsfreeman.com/reside. Not only does it reveal some of our top available listings and sold properties — everything from mansions to ranches — it is loaded with stories on everything from home-design trends to hot watches to the latest hybrid cars.
Do you know what architecture movement is called “America’s national style?” Or why travel is up in Antarctica? You will. Enjoy every page.
Robbie Briggs
CEO
Briggs Freeman Sotheby’s International Realty
Footer Social Links