Editor's note: Here's a look at The National Observer: Real Estate, a roundup of top real estate news from across The Business Journals' network of publications.
Austin Business Journal shares, "Dallas tends to top the country on a lot of metrics, and it can count new housing supply as another feather in its cap.
The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex experienced a 27% growth in new housing from 2010 to 2023, or 9% higher than its predicted growth of 18%, according to a new study by the George W. Bush Institute-SMU Economic Growth Initiative. It's also much higher than the average metro growth rate of 15%.
Although DFW is becoming more expensive as more jobs and people move there, its new housing supply is helping to keep home prices and rents relatively closer to incomes compared to other big U.S. cities, according to the study.
We've got much more on housing in today's newsletter.
Spring housing market off to sluggish start
Like much else about the U.S. economy, tariffs and broader uncertainty are weighing on home sales amid the industry's crucial spring season.
By the numbers: In March, more than 375,000 homes were newly listed on the market — an increase of nearly 9% compared to the same time last year, according to Zillow Group Inc. research. But newly pending sales were flat compared to last year, despite slightly lower average mortgage rates in March 2025 compared to a year ago. Inventory rose to 1.15 million homes in March, an increase of 19% from last year and the most inventory for buyers in the month of March since 2020, according to Zillow.
The for-sale market is actually now tilting in favor of buyers for perhaps the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic — but buyers aren't out in the market in droves because of recent economic turmoil.
"We really haven’t seen that big spring lift that’s in the traditional spring selling season, where sales spike up and you hit that peak," Sean Fergus, executive director of economic research at real estate data firm Zonda, told me. "It feels like it's a little bit in a holding pattern, with so much uncertainty and volatility in the market right now."
Sun Belt slowdown: Housing markets in hot Sun Belt metros are perhaps especially sluggish, since they've seen the most new construction, in-migration and overall demand since the pandemic. Tina Helms, CEO of Re/Max Center and Re/Max Metro Atlanta, told Janelle Ward at the Atlanta Business Chronicle the local market see interest from buyers who have been sitting on the sidelines waiting for more favorable financing conditions but "persistent concerns about a potential recession could temper that enthusiasm."
Climate concerns: In a recent Redfin survey of real estate agents, 39% said they believe climate change is impacting to at least some degree consumer choices about where to live and what homes to buy, reports The Business Journals' Andy Medici.
Builders change strategies amid tariff volatility
The on-again, off-again nature of tariff policy from the White House is throwing another wrench into housing affordability, at a time when constrained inventory and high mortgage rates have already locked out many would-be homebuyers.
Uncertainty about where tariffs will ultimately end up — not to mention the tariffs already in place — may cause some homebuilders to pause or pivot, which could put further pressure on home prices. Homebuilders are estimating the average new home could increase by $10,900 because of recent tariffs, according to the most recent National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo Housing Market Index.
Executives at major homebuilder D.R. Horton lowered the builder's revenue estimates during its earnings call last week, reports Seth Bodine at the Dallas Business Journal. But affordability constraints such as higher mortgage rates and higher prices, not tariffs, were cited for the revision.
According to some experts, many homebuilding materials are sourced domestically — therefore, tariffs might not have as much of an impact compared to industries that are more reliant on imported goods.
Brian Bernard, director of industrials equity research at Morningstar who tracks several public builders, told me while there are some common homebuilder imports from countries like China, he's estimating only a low single-digit increase in construction costs overall for builders from tariffs because so much is sourced domestically.
Market view: Nathan Svobod, president of general contractor Wichita Home Works, told Shaheer Naveed at the Wichita Business Journal quotes for building materials — once reliable for at least 30 days — are now good for roughly a week amid tariff chaos.
GSA wants to offload HUD headquarters
The General Services Administration has identified more real estate it wants to offload as part of a bigger cost-cutting push by the federal government under the Trump administration.
Among the new buildings identified for "accelerated disposition" by the federal government's real estate arm is the headquarters of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, a 1.12 million-square-foot Brutalist building in Washington, D.C., report Michael Neibauer and Douglas Fruehling at the Washington Business Journal.
Other properties: Two GSA buildings in New Mexico, three in the St. Louis metro area and a historic building in downtown Portland, Oregon, are also included on the new list of "accelerated disposition" targets.
The new list of buildings comes a little more than a month after the GSA initially named more than 400 properties as targets for disposal, before that list was removed. A much shorter list was released later in March.
What happens to the GSA properties can be wide ranging — and it'll likely take time for the agency to be rid of the properties, even ones earmarked for "accelerated disposition" — experts previously told me.
HUD is the first Cabinet-level department to announce plans to vacate its longtime home in D.C. since the Trump administration took office in January.
In other GSA headlines: The agency has restarted its search for the next round of private real estate brokerages to represent the federal government’s civilian landlord nationwide, reports Ben Peters at the Washington Business Journal. The GSA is also cutting its leased office space, with the Department of Justice downsizing its massive footprint in D.C.'s NoMa neighborhood by nearly 175,000 square feet, Peters also reports. Finally, in Menlo Park, California, a San Francisco developer was selected by the GSA to purchase one of its properties for $137 million, reports Asia Martin at the Silicon Valley Business Journal.
Three big numbers
- 1,020: How many feet an under-construction skyscraper in Austin, Texas, will top out at, becoming the city's tallest tower
- 10K: The estimated number of jobs a jet manufacturer could bring to North Carolina through a potential new manufacturing operation
- $500M: The size of a proposed bond package for affordable housing in Columbus, Ohio"
Source: Austin Business Journal
Written by: Ashley Fahey
Published: April 24, 2025
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