Raise the roof

Dallas apartment construction boom could spur rent relief, expert says

There is no apartment shortage in Dallas.

Photo by Jenifer McNeil Baker for Greystar

Some price relief appears to be on the way for renters in Dallas-Fort Worth. An explosion of new apartments in the area should help drive down increases in rental rates, according to a real estate analyst.

As of February 21, there were 37,547 apartment units under construction throughout the region, says David Kahn, senior market analyst in DFW for CoStar Group, the parent company of Apartments.com. Among U.S. metro areas, Dallas-Fort Worth ranks second, behind New York City, for the number of apartment units currently being built, Apartments.com data shows.

Not only will the surge in apartment construction mean more choices and more amenities for area renters, but it also will bring some downward pressure on rental rates, according to Kahn. That’s thanks to the stepped-up competition that existing apartments will be facing from new apartments.

Already, growth in DFW rental rates has slowed from about 6 percent in 2015 to 4 percent in 2016, and just under 3 percent in 2017, Kahn says. He expects growth in rental rates to continue declining, especially since a number of local apartment projects in the pipeline haven’t even broken ground yet.

“I wouldn’t say there is an apartment shortage in DFW,” Kahn says. “But in terms of overall housing, since we are building single-family homes at a much lower rate than we have previously and single-family home prices are rising faster than multifamily rents, that pushes many people that would normally buy homes into the renter pool, at least temporarily.”

The demand for more apartments in Dallas-Fort Worth has been driven in large part by the addition of more than 100,000 jobs in the region since 2013, Kahn says. The number of apartment units under construction now in the area represents about 5.5 percent of the existing supply, which Kahn says isn’t an abnormally high percentage.

Kahn says the sections of DFW seeing the most apartment construction include Uptown, Knox-Henderson, East Dallas, West Dallas/Design District, and Northwest Dallas/Medical District, along with Allen, Frisco, McKinney, Plano, and the Addison/Carrollton/Farmers Branch tollway corridor.

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E-Cigarette News

Dallas City Council places restrictions on vaping in public

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Man vaping

Vaping will now be banned exactly like smoking, thanks to a new ordinance from the Dallas City Council.

At their December 11 meeting, the council passed an ordinance to ban vaping in all the same areas where smoking is not allowed. It'll go into effect on December 11, 2025 — giving everyone a year to get into compliance.

Proposed by City of Dallas Environmental Commission (EVC) and the Office of Environmental Quality and Sustainability (OEQS), the ordinance amends the definition of “smoking” in the Dallas City Code to include the use of vaping devices.

The ordinance does not ban vaping — it only bans where you can vape: no vaping in all indoor and enclosed spaces; within 15 feet of building entrances; and on park property. The ordinance also bans marijuana smoking in those same places.

In addition, the amendment requires restaurants, hotels, fitness centers and other businesses to update their signage to clearly state that both smoking and electronic smoking devices are prohibited.

The ordinance already earned widespread support from health organizations such as the Dallas County Health and Human Services, the American Lung Association, and the American Heart Association. These organizations, along with the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the U.S. Surgeon General, have all raised concerns about the health risks of direct and second-hand exposure to vaping aerosols, particularly for vulnerable populations such as children and older adults.

Dallas is not the first city to impose such a ban: San Antonio enacted a similar ban in October. Theirs goes into effect on January 1, 2025.

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