Sure, plenty of Dallas millionaires own swanky homes in the Park Cities. But in recent years, Dallas has seen a huge spike in the number of millionaires opting to rent rather than own a place to live.
A new report from apartment search website RentCafe ranks the Dallas metro area as the second fastest-growing U.S. market for millionaire renters from 2019 to 2023.
The number of millionaire renter households in Dallas-Fort Worth soared more than 1,200 percent — from just 14 in 2019 to 185 in 2023, according to the report.
Looking at DFW's millionaire-renter data another way, the region ranked 14th for the sheer number of households (185) occupied by millionaire renters in 2023, the report says.
“Many of today’s high-income renters live in metro areas … where the abundance of apartments as well as sky-high costs of homeownership make renting the more practical and cost-effective option,” RentCafe explains.
The report largely attributes a nationwide 203-percent bump in millionaire-renter households to a 60-percent spike in the number of millionaire renters among millennials from 2019 to 2023.
Still, in DFW, the number of millionaire homeowners far outweighs the number of millionaire renters. The report tallied 3,133 local millionaire-owner households in 2023, earning it 11th place on the list of hotspots for millionaire owners.
RentCafe based its report on data from the Integrated Public Use Microdata Series (IPUMS) website.
Elsewhere in Texas
Dallas was bested only by Houston, which ranked No. 1 nationwide for the biggest spike in millionaire renters.
The number of Houston millionaire renters swelled from just seven in 2019 to 179 in 2023, according to the report. Houston’s growth rate for that time period — nearly 2,500 percent — put it at the top of the rankings. Houston ranked 15th for the number of millionaire-renter households (179) in 2023.
However, Houston landed behind Dallas (No. 12) in the ranking of the number of hotspots for millionaire homeowners (3,050).
The Austin metro area landed at No. 19 for growth in the number of millionaire renters. That figure climbed from 90 in 2019 to 207 in 2023, or 130 percent, the report shows. Austin ranked 12th for the number of millionaire-renter households in 2023.
