MetroTex: Farmers Branch inventory low, median prices in $300K–$399K range; state bills could reshape options
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Summary
MetroTex Realtors told Farmers Branch council that December snapshots show months of inventory at about 2.4 and a median price in the $300,000–$399,000 range, that active listings and closed sales are down, and that state bills on adaptive use and disclosure could affect local housing options over time.
MetroTex Realtors’ government-affairs representative Matthew Church told the Farmers Branch City Council on Feb. 3 that the local housing market snapshot shows constrained supply and continuing affordability pressures.
“Months of inventory, 2.4, that is still a very healthy inventory supply number,” Church said, but he warned that ‘‘active listings down, closed sales down’’ and that wages have not kept pace with home-price inflation. He said the median price in Farmers Branch is in the $300,000–$399,000 range and noted that younger buyers are underrepresented among recent market participants.
Church said the slide he highlighted was transactional data: ‘‘This answers just the sales, the transaction side of things. It doesn’t…account for those individual land purchases and then the increase in value.’’ He offered to provide the council an updated January snapshot and a 2025-year summary to include those additional purchase data on request.
Beyond local metrics, Church reviewed state policy changes that could influence local markets. He summarized a recent ‘‘foreign buyer’’ bill — saying the measure raised fair-housing and transaction-liability concerns — and described Senate Bill 840, which eases adaptive use (commercial-to-multifamily conversion) for larger cities, and Senate Bill 38, which streamlines certain JP-court eviction procedures. Church cautioned that SB840 applies only to cities with populations of about 150,000 or more, so it does not directly change Farmers Branch zoning authority today, but he said regional conversions can have downstream effects on neighboring cities.
Council members pressed for context. Mayor and Councilwoman Gonzales asked whether high-value lot purchases and teardown-redevelopment had been folded into MetroTex’s snapshot; Church replied the presentation reflected transactional sales data and that he could supply separate land-purchase and redevelopment figures. Councilman Reid asked whether multifamily or mixed-use projects could ease attainability; Church said increasing the number of units per acre (through multifamily or mixed-use development) can lower per-unit costs and pointed to an ongoing Urban3 and Texas A&M Real Estate Center study on land-use options for Dallas County.
The presentation also referenced rising insurance and stormwater costs as affordability drivers and urged sustained city–state collaboration on property-tax and disclosure issues. Church and MetroTex offered to follow up with updated data and additional commercial-market details at the council’s request.
The council accepted the presentation and asked staff to obtain Church’s January update and the fuller 2025 dataset.
The MetroTex presentation began with an introduction by Aaron Flores, deputy director of administrative services, and included Jeff Farnell with Matthew Church. The presentation and Q&A spanned the council’s review of local-market metrics and state-policy implications.