Forget about camping out for the latest iPhone.
Potential home buyers in North Texas reportedly spent the night in line at a new housing development in order to get their pick of lots.
About a dozen buyers slept in tents in McKinney, Texas, this week to secure their first choice among about 80 new homes going for around $350,000, according to The Dallas Morning News. Median home prices in the region are about $285,000.
“It’s a good investment because the area is growing so much,” eight-months pregnant realtor Tawana Keah, who camped out with her teenage daughter, told the newspaper.
Related: Here’s Why Economists Are Concerned About a Housing Bubble
The campout reflects the low inventory that has plagued the housing market not only in Texas but across the country, as a shortage of both new homes and pre-owned property is pushing up prices.
Dallas area home prices were up 8.7 percent in July, according to Case-Shiller, and have surpassed the highs hit before the housing bubble burst.
Last week, real estate analytics firm CoreLogic placed the Dallas metro area on its list of 14 overvalued markets, citing prices that are 14 percent higher than its long-run sustainable level.
That list contained five of the six largest metro areas in Texas and attributed the price gains there to the oil and gas boom, which fueled both job and population growth there, although falling oil prices make future growth at those levels less certain. “As home prices have risen significantly since 2013 in these markets, homes have become less affordable, and therefore, more susceptible to decline in the event of rising mortgage rates, an economic downturn or a building boom,” the report states.
