Real Estate Report

Dallas buyers are searching for low-price houses, but do they exist?

30 percent of Dallas homebuyers are unable to find inventory within their price range.

Trulia.com

Finding the perfect home in your price range is difficult, but do you ever wonder if your fellow house hunters are suffering the same real estate woes?

Trulia’s newest report, MarketMatch, parallels popular home-price searches with the available inventory in any given locale. Nationally, 10.4 percent of home searches failed to yield available homes on the market at the same price point. Over the same six-month period last year, the market mismatch rate was lower, at 8.3 percent.

Currently, many metros suffer tight inventory within the entry-level price range. This creates competition among local buyers and tends to subsequently drive up home prices on the lower end of for-sale supply. In Texas specifically, a high percentage of prospective homebuyers are searching for less expensive homes than current inventory allows. Out of the six Texas metros analyzed, Trulia found five in the bottom quarter of market match scores this year, and three that were ranked within the top 10 value-focused markets: Houston, Dallas, and Fort Worth.

Houston and Dallas hold the second highest market mismatch rates in the nation, at 31.2 and 30.3 percent, respectively. Nationally, 53.4 percent of search properties were valued below the median list price. Meanwhile, three-quarters of home searches in Dallas and Houston fell below the median point.

Houston’s mismatch, currently at 31.2 percent, has improved slightly since last year, when 32.1 percent of homes searches were incompatible with the available inventory. The median list price for homes in Houston during the six-month period ending in mid-September was $334,950 — and over three-quarters of buyers in the metro were seeking less expensive properties.

Last year in Dallas, 73.1 percent of home searches fell below median list price, creating a market mismatch of 29.4 percent. This year, 74.3 percent of home searches were below the midway price point, boosting the market mismatch to 30.3 percent.

Trulia found a similar trend in disproportion between searches and for-sale homes in Fort Worth, where 73.2 percent of visits were under the median price point. The percentage of homebuyers unable to find inventory within their price range increased 1.7 percent year-over-year, reaching 20.7 percent from a prior 18.9 percent.

Much of the mismatch is driven by local market dynamics, including employment and income growth. The Lone Star State is an oil industry hub, and declining gas prices (down 50 percent) have severely slowed job growth in many Texas markets. Houston job growth was at 3.6 percent in early 2015 and sits at 0.6 percent today, which could create more caution among homebuyers to search above their comfortable price range. Houston’s job growth is far below the current national average, which is 1.9 percent.

On the other hand, Dallas’ job growth is up year-over-year. But price per square foot in Dallas grew 10.4 percent while median list price jumped 11.8 percent year-over-year in August. With interest rates flat, real estate market growth pushed homes out of many prospective buyers’ budgets.

This information is pertinent for entry-level buyers across Texas. Given the data, patience is key when searching for a home in Houston, Dallas, or Fort Worth. With more time, you may even be able to increase your budget and benefit from more supply and less demand.

reports

Bang for Buck

Surprising Dallas neighbor unlocks biggest apartments in DFW for $1,500

Photo courtesy of RentCafe

Mesquite has the biggest apartments on a budget in DFW.

Budget-conscious renters searching for the roomiest apartments in the region should look no further than Mesquite. According to a new study, the Dallas suburb boasts the most bang for your buck in terms of space in North Texas.

In 2026, Mesquite residents can rent just shy of 1,000 square feet (a 988-square-foot apartment) for $1,500 per month. That's eight square feet more than what they could get with the same budget last year.

RentCafe's annual report analyzes the places where renters can find the largest apartment sizes across 200 of the most populous U.S. cities for a monthly budget of $1,500. The price per square foot was calculated using the average apartment rent and size per city based on "multifamily properties" containing 50 or more units.

Mesquite offers the most spacious apartment size in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex for $1,500, and the city boasts the 10th biggest apartments in Texas on that budget.

Elsewhere in the area, Denton saw the second biggest leap in apartment size nationwide since 2025, the report found. Renters there could lease an 835-square-foot apartment for $1,500 last year, and that has jumped to 862 square feet in 2026.

Dallas renters, on the other hand, will only net an 803-square-foot apartment for the same monthly cost, which is down 11 square feet from last year. Dallas ranks third from the bottom in the statewide list of cities that offer the largest apartments for the $1,500 price tag, with Frisco and Austin ranking even lower. Apartment hunters in Frisco will get only 798 square feet for $1,500.

Here's how much space you can get for $1,500 elsewhere in Dallas-Fort Worth this year, from largest to smallest:

Arlington – 927 square feet
Garland – 924 square feet
Fort Worth – 913 square feet
McKinney – 885 square feet
Grand Prairie – 873 square feet
Irving – 859 square feet
Plano – 820 square feet

Apartment sizes across Texas
For the second year in a row, South Texas is the region that has the most spacious apartments for a $1,500 monthly budget, RentCafe found.

McAllen leads the nation with the biggest apartment size – at 1,378 square feet – which is large enough for a three- or four-bedroom unit.

"With rents averaging just $993 and the typical apartment measuring 912 square feet, McAllen renters get a lot more space for their money than most Americans do within that monthly budget," the report said. "Still, that figure is down slightly from last year’s 1,393 square feet — a sign that even the most affordable markets are starting to tighten."

McAllen neighbor Brownsville ranks fourth statewide with apartments spanning 1,213 square feet for the same budget.

These are the top 10 Texas cities that offer the biggest apartments for $1,500 in 2026:

No. 1 – McAllen (1,378 square feet)
No. 2 – Amarillo (1,237 square feet)
No. 3 – Lubbock (1,217 square feet)
No. 4 – Brownsville (1,213 square feet)
No. 5 – El Paso (1,128 square feet)
No. 6 – Pasadena (1,125 square feet)
No. 7 – Corpus Christi (1,115 square feet)
No. 8 – Killeen (1,058 square feet)
No. 9 – San Antonio (1,023 square feet)
No. 10 – Mesquite (988 square feet)

real estate apartments housing rentcafe study dallas fort worth mesquite arlington frisco denton