The DFW market right now, explained like you’re my neighbor

Fall showed up, mortgage rates climbed back over 7%, and somebody in every group chat is still asking if they should wait.

In short--- DFW is not 2021. It is also not falling apart. It is a normal-ish market that gets weird the second you change zip codes.

The metro in one paragraph

The typical DFW house is selling right around $390,000. That’s basically flat compared with last year, give or take a little depending on which report you read. There are about four to four-and-a-half months of homes on the market. Four to six months is what people call balanced. So we are not in a feeding frenzy, and we are not in a yard-sale.

Homes are taking longer than the panic years. Think weeks, not a weekend. Sellers who price like it’s still 2022 sit. Sellers who price like it’s 2026 sell.

Rates, since that’s the part keeping people on the porch

This week the average 30-year fixed rate came in at 7.03%, according to Freddie Mac. A year ago it was closer to 6.3%. That gap is real money every month. It is also why a lot of buyers are picky, and why a lot of owners with a cheap old rate are not listing.

If you are waiting for 3% again before you move: I cannot help you with that emotionally. I can help you run the numbers on the house in front of you.

DFW is not one market

This is the part where I get on the soapbox.

Tarrant County is tighter than the outer growth towns. Collin and Denton still cost more. Dallas County’s median is lower because Dallas County is a lot of different houses pretending to be one number. Condos and townhomes have more sitting on the shelf than regular houses.

A street in East Dallas and a street in a brand-new subdivision east of everywhere are not having the same year. If your cousin in Celina had a different experience than your coworker in Fort Worth, you are both right.

If you want to buy

You have more room than you did when people were writing love letters with the offer. You can ask questions. You can negotiate repairs. You should still move when you find the right house, because the “perfect” rate and the “perfect” house do not arrive on the same Tuesday.

If you want to sell

Price it like a human who has walked through the comparable sales, not like someone who remembers what the neighbor got in 2022. The houses that linger are usually the ones that came out ambitious and then got sad in public. Clean, honest price still works.

If you just like to watch

Fair. That’s why this blog exists.

I’ll keep talking through the North Texas numbers as they change. Next time maybe we pick a suburb and argue about it properly.

Patrick Cunha
Ember Realty
North Texas / DFW

Numbers above are the recent public snapshot for the Dallas–Fort Worth area as of late September 2026. Your neighborhood can, and will, disagree.

Mic's on

There’s something here now

The blog existed for about twenty minutes with nothing on it, which felt honest and also a little embarrassing.

So here is the deal.

Open House, Open Mic is DFW real estate with the commentary left on. I’ll talk inventory, rates, suburbs that are suddenly in every group chat, and the difference between a house that’s “needs love” and a house that’s “needs a contractor and a therapist.”

What you will get:

• What’s going on in the North Texas market, in English
• Neighborhood walk-throughs, not a brochure copy
• The stuff buyers and sellers mutter in the hallway
• Occasional jokes. Some of them will be dad jokes. I know this about myself.

What you will not get:

• Fake urgency
• “Crushing it this quarter”
• A listing description that uses the word nestled unless the house is actually in a tree

I’m Patrick. Brokered by Ember Realty. If you want to look at houses, talk about houses, or argue about Frisco vs. everywhere else, you know where to find me.

Mic’s on.