Dallas Real Estate Agencies

Yun said lender surveys show that fewer people are applying for loans to buy homes, even though interest rates have remained relatively low.

"It had been consistently positive up to the summer, " he said. "Ever since the summer, it's beginning to trend down from one year ago."

The early signs of softening aren't enough for the 1 million-member Realtors association to revise its bullish outlook. The association expects about 5.4 million homes to trade in the U.S. this year and another 5.5 million in sales in 2017. That's up by more than 1 million annually from the worst of the recession but lags decade-ago peaks by more than 1.5 million transactions.

"Existing home sales should be closer to 6 million if not above, " Yun said. "Given that pent up demand, I think the next couple of years we should see a steady increase toward that figure."

Both home sales and prices are at record levels in Dallas-Fort Worth. Real estate agents in the area are expected to sell more than 100, 000 homes in 2016 for the first time ever. And median prices have soared more than 40 percent in the last four years.

But the frenzy in the North Texas home market could be abating. Real estate agents report that sales of homes priced above $500, 0000 have slowed since summer and the number of sellers dropping their asking price is growing. Almost 13 percent of Dallas-area home listings have been marked down, compared with about a 10.2 percent a year ago, according to Trulia.