North Texas home sales are down – off 20 percent in June.

So the time it takes to sell a house is rising. Average days on the market before local homes sell are up about 13 percent in the latest Realtor reports.

So why is the number of houses for sale in North Texas falling? Shouldn't inventories be going the other way?

Real estate analysts are scratching their heads about that.

Indeed, while inventories of homes on the market are rising around the country, Dallas-Fort Worth is one of the few places where the number of homes for sale is down – about 10 percent from a year ago.

That's great news for the housing market.

But analysts still wonder how it happened.

They have some ideas.

First, perhaps some folks have gotten seller fatigue and decided to take their houses off the market.

And when distressed sellers fall into foreclosure, the house can go off the market while the lender gets control, makes repairs and relists the property for sale.

Also, homeowners who have no equity in their houses may decide they can't afford a professional real estate agent and decide to try to market the property themselves.

Usually those for-sale-by-owner homes aren't counted.

"If the sales don't go through the multiple listing service, we don't catch them," said Dr. James Gaines of Texas A&M University's Real Estate Center, which tracks North Texas pre-owned home sales.

There's also the possibility that some foreclosed houses are not included in the MLS.

Whatever the reason, North Texas' current pre-owned home inventory of about seven months' supply is significantly less than the national average, which is running close to 11 months.

Back during the late 1980s real estate crash, the supply of pre-owned homes on the market here ballooned to almost 14 months.

A medical buildings developer has purchased a North Dallas tract just off U.S. Highway 75.

A Cirrus Group affiliate just bought the 2.4-acre property on Northaven Road just west of the highway.

Broker Candace Rubin has been marketing the property – a former labor union hall – for almost three years. A previous deal to build seniors housing on the site fell through.

The new owners plan to construct a four-story rehabilitation hospital.

The property sold for just less than $20 per square foot.

Chicago investment partners have purchased an office building in Allen.

ORIX Real Estate Capital Inc. and Boulder Net Lease Funds LLC acquired the Sanmina building at 105 W. Bethany Drive.

The 10-year-old office building is fully leased to Sanmina Texas LP, an electronic manufacturing service provider.

The building was sold by iStar Financial in a deal negotiated by Evan Stone, Cary Krier and Stephen Link of the Dallas office of Jones Lang LaSalle Capital Markets Group.

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