By Mark Hewitt · Hewitt Group at Real Broker, LLC · Data: NTREIS / ShowingTime Plus, current as of April 8, 2026
There is a conversation happening quietly among the buyers, investors, and real estate professionals who pay the closest attention to value in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, and Haltom City is at the center of it. Not because the city has suddenly transformed itself into something it was not, and not because some wave of gentrification has swept through and rebranded its neighborhoods with coffee shops and coworking spaces. The conversation is happening because people who understand how real estate markets work — how proximity to employment and infrastructure drives long-term value, how cities with strong rental fundamentals attract capital, and how underpriced markets adjacent to appreciating ones tend to follow — are looking at Haltom City's numbers and seeing something that the broader public has not yet fully recognized. Haltom City sits in northeastern Tarrant County, bordered by Fort Worth to the west and south, North Richland Hills to the east, Watauga to the north, and Richland Hills to the southeast. It is minutes from downtown Fort Worth, minutes from the Loop 820 and Highway 183 employment corridors, and minutes from the kind of retail, dining, and healthcare infrastructure that makes daily life functional and convenient. Its primary zip codes — 76117 and 76118 — cover a housing stock that ranges from entry-level bungalows and post-war ranch homes on generous lots to more recently updated properties in neighborhoods that are beginning to attract a new generation of buyers who value price per square foot and location over prestige and polish. And the March 2026 data from the North Texas Real Estate Information Systems (NTREIS) is presenting a set of market conditions that anyone serious about real estate in Haltom City — whether you are buying, selling, or evaluating an investment — needs to understand before making a move.
The number that is anchoring the North Texas market conversation in spring 2026 is the regional median sales price, which fell to $360,000 in March 2026, a 4.0% decline from $375,000 in March 2025. Year-to-date, the median across North Texas sits at $355,900, down 3.8% from the first quarter of 2025. For Haltom City, where price points have historically run well below the regional median — making it one of the most genuinely affordable cities for homeownership in all of Tarrant County — this regional softening compounds an already compelling value proposition in ways that are visible at the street level in both 76117 and 76118. Buyers targeting the established neighborhoods throughout 76117, which covers the western and central portions of Haltom City closer to the Fort Worth border and the Loop 820 corridor, are finding sellers in spring 2026 who are operating in a fundamentally different posture than they were twelve to eighteen months ago. Homes that would have moved quickly with minimal negotiation in 2022 and 2023 are now sitting long enough for buyers to do their due diligence, submit offers below asking price, and request concessions on closing costs, inspection repairs, and sometimes both simultaneously. For a first-time buyer or a value-seeking investor targeting Haltom City's most accessible price points, this shift in seller posture represents an entry point opportunity that has not existed in this market in several years.
The days-on-market data strengthens this buyer-favorable narrative considerably. Homes across North Texas averaged 71 days on the market in March 2026, a 6.0% increase from 67 days in March 2025, with the year-to-date figure rising to 75 days. In Haltom City, where the buyer pool encompasses a genuinely diverse mix of demographics — first-time buyers stretching to get into homeownership, investors acquiring rental properties for the strong blue-collar and working-family tenant demand that characterizes the city's rental market, flippers targeting the older housing stock for renovation and resale, and owner-occupants relocating from higher-cost Fort Worth neighborhoods in search of more space at a lower price point — longer days on market is reshaping how transactions are conducted in ways that benefit prepared buyers across every segment. Buyers in 76118, which covers the eastern portion of Haltom City near the North Richland Hills and Richland Hills borders and includes a housing stock that skews slightly newer and slightly larger than the western 76117 corridor, now have the time to conduct thorough inspections of homes that in many cases were built in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s and may carry deferred maintenance or aging systems that require careful evaluation before a purchase commitment. That due diligence time is not a luxury in a city with Haltom City's housing age profile — it is a financial necessity, and the current market is providing it in a way the peak frenzy years did not.
The Housing Affordability Index climbed to 98 in March 2026, up 6.5% from 92 in March 2025, with the year-to-date reading at 99 — one point below the threshold of 100 at which a median-income household can exactly afford a median-priced home across the North Texas region. For Haltom City, this improvement in regional affordability is meaningful in a way that goes beyond the headline number. The households most likely to be buying in 76117 and 76118 — working families in the $55,000 to $85,000 household income range, essential workers employed in manufacturing, logistics, construction, and healthcare throughout Tarrant County, and first-time buyers leveraging FHA financing with down payments in the 3.5% to 5% range — are precisely the demographic that the affordability index improvement serves most directly and most practically. If you are a buyer in Haltom City who has been running the numbers on homeownership and finding them just barely out of reach, the current combination of modestly lower regional prices, a 6.5% improvement in the affordability index, and a seller community that is now willing to contribute to closing costs in ways it was not before may have moved the math meaningfully in your direction. Running those calculations again with current figures, with a lender who specializes in the financing products most relevant to Haltom City's price points, is an exercise that could produce a different and more encouraging answer than it did a year ago.
On the supply side, North Texas carried 44,398 homes for sale in March 2026, down 2.8% from 45,697 in March 2025, with months supply at 4.5 compared to 4.8 months a year ago. Haltom City's inventory dynamics are shaped by a housing stock that is older and denser than most of its suburban neighbors, with a higher proportion of smaller lots and post-war construction that creates both opportunity and complexity for buyers and sellers navigating the market. The city is essentially fully developed within its boundaries, which means the inventory in 76117 and 76118 at any given time represents the full universe of available options, and that universe does not expand quickly or predictably. What this means practically for buyers is that while the broader regional market is offering more breathing room than at any point in recent years, specific homes in Haltom City's most desirable pockets — updated properties near Fossil Creek, well-maintained homes in the neighborhoods feeding into Birdville ISD, and the larger lot homes along the city's eastern edge near the North Richland Hills boundary in 76118 — can still attract meaningful buyer interest when they are priced and presented correctly. Showing up to the Haltom City market without financing confirmed, without a clear sense of which neighborhoods and price bands represent the best value for your specific situation, and without an agent who tracks this market daily is a strategy that leads to missed opportunities, not successful purchases.
The transaction volume data tells the story of a market that is active and functional despite the recalibration that has taken place over the past twelve months. North Texas recorded 10,062 closed sales in March 2026, a 2.5% increase over the 9,817 recorded in March 2025. Pending sales were nearly unchanged at 11,197 compared to 11,206 a year ago, and new listings declined 2.4% to 18,567. The year-to-date closed sales figure of 24,225 runs 2.2% below the same period in 2025, reflecting a market that started 2026 with less momentum before March activity picked up meaningfully with the arrival of the spring buying season. For Haltom City, where investor and first-time buyer activity tends to accelerate in the spring as tax refunds provide down payment capital and the improving weather makes the older housing stock show better than it does in the grey months of January and February, the March uptick in regional transaction volume is a meaningful signal that the market is building real momentum heading into the second quarter of the year.
The list price received metric is where sellers in Haltom City need to focus their most careful strategic thinking as they prepare to enter the spring market. Across North Texas, homes sold for 94.2% of their original list price in March 2026, compared to 94.8% in March 2025. On a $270,000 home in Haltom City's 76117 zip code — a reasonable approximation of what a well-maintained three-bedroom in a desirable neighborhood might list for in the current market — that 0.6% gap represents approximately $1,620 in real dollars under a correctly priced scenario. But that math deteriorates quickly for homes that enter the market above where current comparable sales support them. Buyers in Haltom City, a significant portion of whom are investors and experienced purchasers who are highly attuned to price and condition, are exceptionally good at identifying overpriced listings and either bypassing them entirely or waiting them out before submitting low offers backed by the leverage that extended market time provides. Sellers in 76117 and 76118 who price their homes correctly from day one, invest in basic presentation improvements — professional photography, thorough cleaning, addressing the most visible deferred maintenance items before listing — and work with an agent who understands both the owner-occupant and investor buyer segments that drive Haltom City demand are the ones achieving the strongest net proceeds in today's market. Everyone else is leaving money on the table in a market that is no longer forgiving of the pricing errors it once absorbed without consequence.
Haltom City's moment in the North Texas real estate conversation is coming, and it is arriving for exactly the reasons that careful market observers have been noting for several years: the land is gone everywhere else, the prices are still accessible here, the location is irreplaceable, and the infrastructure that surrounds the city continues to improve. The buyers and investors who position themselves correctly in 76117 and 76118 in spring 2026 — when prices are modestly lower than a year ago, sellers are more negotiable than they have been in years, and affordability has improved meaningfully across the region — are the ones who will look back at this moment as a decision that paid off in ways the headlines of the time did not fully appreciate.
Mark Hewitt and the Hewitt Group at Real Broker, LLC track the Haltom City market with the same rigor and attention to local detail that we bring to every community we serve. We know what is selling in 76117 and 76118, what is sitting, what buyers and investors in this market are prioritizing, and where the genuine opportunities are emerging as spring 2026 unfolds across Tarrant County. Whether you are buying your first home in Haltom City, selling a property you have owned for years, or evaluating an investment opportunity in one of North Texas's most undervalued zip codes, the Hewitt Group will give you a clear, honest, data-grounded perspective and a practical strategy for acting on it. Reach out today and let's talk Haltom City.
