Dallas-Fort Worth Fails to Escape Housing Crisis

Even as the Dallas-Fort Worth area pumps itself up for the excitement of the Super Bowl, it also is experiencing a housing crisis mega-bummer: Distressed home sales hit a new high in Dallas-Fort Worth in 2010, creeping into a record 16 percent of total properties sold by agents in this north Texas area. Dallas-Fort Worth had previously been the exception, a pocket of home-value stability in a nation bogged down by sagging house prices.

Sales of distressed homes -- that is, short sales, or homes sold due to foreclosure-- have grown steadily in north Texas, according to the gurus at Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center. In 2003, only 5.7 percent of homes sold through real estate agents in the north Texas multiple listing service were "distressed transactions." Now, Dallas Realtors say the real number is actually much higher.