Seventy-nine days doesn't sound like so much time.

That's about how long it is until Labor Day – less than three months.

And these days, that kind of time seems to go by in a blink.

In North Texas, 79 days is the average time it takes to sell a preowned house. That compares to more than 100 days on the market to sell in most large U.S. cities.

A new report by analysts at Altos Research and Real IQ finds that the Dallas area has one of the fastest home sales times in the country. In just Dallas alone, they estimate the average sales time is 85 days.

Of course, those are averages. If you've been trying to offload your property since last summer and still haven't found a buyer, all the positive reports in the world do you no good.

Indeed, sales times for homes vary significantly in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. For instance, in East Dallas it's taking an average of 97 days so far this year to sell a house. But in Northeast Dallas and Coppell, for instance, the average days on the market through May is just two months.

And even those numbers may be misleading. If you had your house on the market last summer, took the sign down in the fall and then decided to try again in March, that's when the clock started running.

In May, the overall number of houses on the market in North Texas dropped by 10 percent – the first double-digit decline in memory.

But several folks have written me to suggest that could be because some sellers have given up and decided to take a rest from the turbulent housing market.

If that's so, those properties could be sporting "for sale" signs again at some point.

One thing is clear – preowned home sales are down by almost 14 percent in North Texas so far this year from the first five months of 2007.

And unless there is a change in the economy and the mortgage market, analysts see more of the same for the rest of 2008.

Hermansen Land Development Inc. says the Courtyard by Marriott planned in its Frisco Market Center will be a prototype hotel.

Called Go Marriott, the 150-room hotel will be on Frisco's Main Street just west of the Dallas North Tollway.

Construction is scheduled to begin late this year with an opening at the end of 2009.

The hotel will join a Main Event entertainment center under construction in the 88-acre development. The project will also include retail, restaurant and high-density multifamily residential construction.

This week's sale announcement about Hunt Petroleum has caused some head scratching in the real estate business.

Hunt Petroleum affiliates are the biggest owners of real estate in Richardson's Telecom Corridor – including land in the Galatyn Park complex on North Central Expressway.

So with Fort Worth-based XTO Energy buying the Hunt company, real estate brokers and developers are wondering what's up with the Telecom Corridor land.

As it turns out, that real estate has been separated from the deal and will remain in the hands of the Hunt family, officials with the Richardson Economic Development Partnership have learned.

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