Bucks for Buildings

This is the salary you need to buy a house in Dallas right now

Dallasites need to earn a lot to afford a home.

Photo courtesy of Ebby Halliday Realtors

Mortgage resource HSH.com has crunched the numbers to find the yearly salary needed to afford the principal, interest, taxes, and insurance payments on a median-priced home in Dallas, and it's one of the higher figures in the nation.

The country's 50 most populous metropolitan areas were analyzed, and Texas makes a three-city showing on the 25 most expensive list.

Dallas is No. 18 overall and the second-priciest city in Texas, with residents having to bring in $61,039.97 a year in order to afford a $255,200 median-priced home. Nationally, workers have to earn $56,159.89 to afford a home that'll cost them $255,600.

How did HSH.com arrive at the numbers? It used 2017 second-quarter data for median home prices from the National Association of Realtors, national mortgage rates derived from weekly surveys by Freddie Mac and the Mortgage Bankers Association of America (for 30-year fixed rate mortgages), and available property tax and homeowners insurance costs. It also used the standard 28 percent "front-end" debt ratios and a 20 percent down payment subtracted from the NAR’s median-home-price data to determine its figures.

A 10 percent jump in home prices between the first and second quarters of 2017 can also be felt nationwide, though Dallas is actually faring a little better with its 7.9 percent increase.

Dallas' current salary figure is $2,249.84 higher than what was required during the year's first quarter. If homebuyers in the Dallas metro put 10 percent down instead of 20 percent, the required salary would increase from $61,039.97 to $69,301.44.

Austin — No. 13 overall and the most expensive metro in Texas — requires $69,952.75 a year of its workers, while No. 22 Houston demands a $57,346.12 salary in order to net a home. A nearly 6 percent home-price increase in Houston is a little easier to swallow than Dallas' almost 8 percent and Austin's 8.5 percent.

California residents are surely feeling the pressure, with San Jose taking the title of most expensive and San Francisco, San Diego, and Los Angeles helping to fill out the top five. In San Jose, the required salary is nearly five times the national — $221,363.63 — because a home usually costs around $1.18 million.

If you want to make your money stretch, San Antonio is a good choice. The Alamo City makes the list of the 25 least expensive metros, though its home prices are rising faster than any other city in Texas. You should expect to earn at least $53,829.14 to afford a $222,600 home there.

But it's Pittsburgh that'll let you earn the least: $35,329.29. Though if you're looking to buy there, you may want to do it soon — right now the median home price is $145,000, but that's already up nearly 21 percent from the first quarter of 2017.

reports home-for-sale

Haggard Farm news

Massive retail village with restaurant and event barn to debut in Plano

Rendering courtesy of Haggard Farm

A rendering of Almanac restaurant at Haggard Farm.

A 180,000-square-foot “retail village” is about to be born in Plano.

The village will debut this fall at the more than $750 million Haggard Farm mixed-use development, along with 350 apartments, 188 townhomes, and a three-acre park. Haggard Farm sits at Spring Creek Parkway and Parkwood Boulevard in Plano.

A farm-to-table restaurant and an event barn will anchor the village, being developed by Stillwater Capital in partnership with The Retail Connection and WoodHouse.

WoodHouse will introduce two original concepts: a farm-to-table restaurant called Almanac and an event space called Haggard Hall. Stillwater says the 17,500-square-foot event barn, made of mass timber, is “inspired by the role Texas dance halls once played as community gathering places.”

Haggard Hall will accommodate more than 600 guests across the main hall, private dining rooms, and event lawns.

“Our history as music venue, club, and restaurant operators has made us keenly aware of the collective chemistry that transforms a neighborhood into a destination,” W. Brandt Wood, partner and director of experience at WoodHouse, says in a release. “Haggard Farm will greet its visitors with immersive, authentic, and interconnected experiences throughout the district.”

Stillwater Capital says more tenants will be revealed soon. Over half of the spaces at the retail village are already leased.

The retail village will offer “a distinctive mix of dining, wellness, hospitality, apparel, and home furnishing operators,” the developer says.

The entire development will span 142 acres. Aside from the retail and residential components, Haggard Farm will feature a boutique hotel and up to 600,000 square feet of office space.

Clay Roby, managing director of Stillwater Capital, says Haggard Farm’s lawns, gardens, and water features will complement farmers markets, seasonal festivals, and community concerts.

“Haggard Farm is one of DFW’s most exciting projects — a curated collection of shopping, dining, hospitality, and residential components inspired by the unique character of this land and delivered as a single cohesive environment,” Roby says in the release.

farms haggard mixed use development plano