Housing Slowdown Impacts Dallas Building Products Retail Demand

The post-pandemic housing boom—driven by low mortgage rates, surging prices, and limited inventory—brought pronounced gains to Dallas, which was also experiencing significant migration.

Since early 2022, however, Dallas has faced an outsized downturn, with both existing home sales and new single-family housing starts dropping more than 30% from their post-pandemic peaks—now at lows not seen in decades, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University.

This slowdown affects not only real estate agents, potential home buyers and sellers, and homebuilders, but also small local retailers. At Elliot’s Hardware, a Dallas-based building materials store, General Manager Welmon Mays described a steady traffic from loyal customers.  He said average transaction costs (amount spent per visit) have shrunk along with the housing market.

Analysts don’t expect a housing rebound in 2025. Mays is focusing on customer relationships—an edge he believes local chains have versus big box retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s.