Erath County housing report: Here’s what you need to know.

By KATIE BURR and SHAWN STONE

Publishing note: The following information was submitted by local real estate agents Katie Burr and Shawn Stone. Together, they will write a monthly real estate update that will be published exclusively on Beneath the Surface News.

With the small supply of homes that are available and continuing to fly off the market, real estate continues to be a hot commodity in Erath County.

With many of these homes receiving multiple offers in only a few days, some homes are fetching above original asking price as buyers intensely compete to have their offer accepted.

And it's only March.

To put that into context, one of the most popular price ranges in single-family residential ($175k-$250k) has only 13 properties for sale inside Stephenville city limits - and all 13 are under contract.

The supply simply cannot compete with the demand.

If you look at the attached infographic you see that active listings, as well as months of inventory, are drastically low.

Small acreage continues to be hard to find as the majority of properties 20 acres or less are in subdivisions which usually will have heavier restrictions.

Restrictions aren't necessarily a bad thing though, as they are put in place in order to protect land values.

For example, if someone buys a property beside a few other properties that are well-kept with nice houses and barns, and decides to keep a bunch of junk cars and other eyesores around their place, then that would adversely affect the value of those nicer properties nearby.

While no one wants to be told what to do with their property, most minor restrictions are for the property owner's own good in the long run.