Single-family homebuilding permits are down in most cities across North Texas, with Dallas clocking a nearly 30% decrease year over year.
Residential building permits were down 32% in Frisco, 38% in Little Elm, 9% in Prosper, and 1% in Anna through the first nine months of 2023, according to data compiled by Addison-based Tomlin Investments that was provided to The Dallas Express.
While Tomlin Investments does not track permit data for Dallas specifically, data published in the latest Development Services Department (DSD) newsletter shows that single-family permits were down 29% year over year in Dallas.
The department has yet to release residential permit data for September, so The Dallas Express’ permit calculation only takes into account the first eight months of the year — from January to August.
Even though residential permits were down across multiple North Texas markets, some cities in the metroplex actually managed to clock year-over-year increases despite the pullback in housing demand, decades-high mortgage rates, and soaring home prices.
The average mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed contract hovered slightly above 7% in September, while the 15-year fixed mortgage averaged around 6.5%, according to mortgage rate data from Freddie Mac.
According to the permit data analyzed by Tomlin Investments, two markets managed to buck the downward trend: McKinney (+22%) and Celina (+44%). The market in Melissa has neither increased nor decreased and is currently on the same track it was in 2022.
Unlike McKinney and Celina, the City of Dallas has frequently struggled to attain timely residential permit approvals, periodically running into backlogs that result in lengthy turnaround times.
The median time DSD has needed to approve a single-family permit in 2023 has been approximately 20 days, down from 68 median days in 2022 and 63 median days in 2021, according to historical permit data from the City’s residential permit activity dashboard.
Still, permit times under City Manager T.C. Broadnax continue to be a problem for local developers and building professionals, particularly on the commercial end of development, where multi-month turnaround times are still being reported by The Dallas Express.
