We have been watching rents rise over the last many years in the Dallas and surrounding areas. It has become especially noticeable with the abundance of new construction properties being built. Rents in these new buildings are far above the average mentioned by Chris Salviati, the Housing Economist for Apartment List. When you consider the average rent is $1110 per month this equates to a home loan of $135,000. If you are paying $1700 or more per you could afford a loan of $200,000+. The question becomes, do you pay someone else’s mortgage or do you put that payment toward your own property? Once you own your own home you can reap the benefits of not only some tax advantages but appreciation while your payment stays the same. At some point, sell your starter home ad use the increased value to move up to a bigger one. Let the Dallas Native Team show you how to turn from a renter to a home owner.

Add the amount you want to put down to the loan amount listed above to reach the actual home purchase price. You can put down as little as 3.5% to get a loan. The payment listed above represents principle, interest, taxes and insurance.

– Mary Beth Harrison 

Welcome to the June 2018 Dallas Rent Report. Dallas rents increased over the past month. In this report, we’ll evaluate trends in the Dallas rental market, including comparisons to cities throughout the metro, state, and nation.

Dallas rents increased significantly over the past month

Dallas rents have increased 0.4% over the past month, and have increased slightly by 1.1% in comparison to the same time last year. Currently, median rents in Dallas stand at $890 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,110 for a two-bedroom. This is the fourth straight month that the city has seen rent increases after a decline in January. Dallas’ year-over-year rent growth lags the state average of 2.0%, as well as the national average of 1.5%.

Rents rising across the Dallas Metro

Throughout the past year, rent increases have been occurring not just in the city of Dallas, but across the entire metro. Of the largest 10 cities that we have data for in the Dallas metro, 9 of them have seen prices rise. Here’s a look at how rents compare across some of the largest cities in the metro.

• Arlington has seen the fastest rent growth in the metro, with a year-over-year increase of 4.1%. The median two-bedroom there costs $1,220, while one-bedrooms go for $980.
• Over the past year, McKinney is the only city in the metro that has seen rents fall, with a decline of 1.8%. Median two-bedrooms there cost $1,400, while one-bedrooms go for $1,130.
• Plano has the most expensive rents of the largest cities in the Dallas metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,420; rents were up 0.3% over the past month and 1.1% over the past year.
• Dallas proper has the least expensive rents in the Dallas metro, with a two-bedroom median of $1,110; rents grew 0.4% over the past month and 1.1% over the past year.

Dallas rents more affordable than many similar cities nationwide

As rents have increased slightly in Dallas, comparable cities nationwide have seen rents grow more quickly. Dallas is still more affordable than most other large cities across the country.

• Rents increased slightly in other cities across the state, with Texas as a whole logging rent growth of 2.0% over the past year. For example, rents have grown by 3.4% in Houston, 0.9% in San Antonio, and 0.3% in Austin.
• Dallas’ median two-bedroom rent of $1,110 is below the national average of $1,170. Nationwide, rents have grown by 1.5% over the past year compared to the 1.1% increase in Dallas.
• While Dallas’ rents rose slightly over the past year, some cities nationwide saw decreases, including Seattle (-0.8%) and DC (-0.1%).
• Renters will find more reasonable prices in Dallas than most comparable cities. For example, San Francisco has a median 2BR rent of $3,070, which is more than two-and-a-half times the price in Dallas.

Methodology – Recent Updates:

Data from private listing sites, including our own, tends to skew toward luxury apartments, which introduces sample bias when estimates are calculated directly from these listings. To address these limitations, we’ve recently made major updates to our methodology, which we believe have greatly improved the accuracy and reliability of our estimates.

Methodology:

Apartment List is committed to making our rent estimates the best and most accurate available. To do this, we start with reliable median rent statistics from the Census Bureau, then extrapolate them forward to the current month using a growth rate calculated from our listing data. In doing so, we use a same-unit analysis similar to Case-Shiller’s approach, comparing only units that are available across both time periods to provide an accurate picture of rent growth in cities across the country.

Our approach corrects for the sample bias inherent in other private sources, producing results that are much closer to statistics published by the Census Bureau and HUD. Our methodology also allows us to construct a picture of rent growth over an extended period of time, with estimates that are updated each month.

Information Courtesy of Apartment List