Home sales are down this year in two-thirds of Dallas-area neighborhoods.

Prices are still rising in most residential areas — albeit more slowly.

After years of sharp gains in North Texas home sales and soaring prices, 2018 is the year of the housing market shift. Higher interest rates and buyer fatigue are probably to blame for a slowdown in the Dallas area’s frenetic home market.

Through the first nine months of 2018, the number of preowned home sales is down in more than two dozen of the Dallas-area neighborhoods The Dallas Morning News tracks each quarter.

A year ago, about half that many local neighborhoods had year-over-year home sales declines.

The largest double-digit percentage home sales declines this year have come in neighborhoods including Duncanville (19 percent), Fairview (19 percent), Northwest Dallas (17 percent) and Allen (15 percent).

By Steve Brown, Real Estate Editor