Sad News for Singletons

Here's how long it takes Dallas singles to save for a down payment

It's a longer road for single homebuyers.

Photo by Sawitree Pamee/EyeEm, Getty Images

It doesn't take a math genius to know that two incomes are better than one, especially when saving up to buy a house. A new report from Zillow confirms that single homebuyers have it really, really rough, with many living in cities where it takes two or three times as long to save for a down payment as it does for a couple. Even worse, less than half of all U.S. homes are affordable for a single homebuyer.

In Texas, however, the numbers are a little less scary. While Zillow claims that the average single homebuyers would need to save for 11 years to a reach a 20 percent down payment on a typical U.S. home, in Dallas-Fort Worth the number is a slightly better 9.6 years. To reach this estimate, the real estate website combined home values and income data from the Census and assumed that 10 percent of the person's or couple's income was being saved every year.

So if singles in DFW are having to wait nearly a decade to become homebuyers, how long does it take couples? Only 4.4 years. That's mainly because their combined median income ($87,800) is more than twice that of singles ($40,000), which also sets them up to afford a higher percentage of available housing stock: 90 percent versus 48 percent. So a couple in DFW could, at maximum, afford a home priced at $440,698. A single homebuyer is limited to $205,047 or less.

The silver lining here is that DFW residents still have it easier than Austinites, no matter their marital status. In Austin, single homebuyers are right in line with the U.S. average at 11.1 years, while couples actually have to wait a little longer than the nation as a whole: 5.1. Austin couples have a much higher combined median income ($99,000 versus $45,600) and can afford 87 percent of the homes on the market. Singles are limited to 42 percent, or the homes priced at $233,188 or less.

Aspiring Houston and San Antonio homebuyers are on the fastest track to Texas homeownership. Both cities give couples a four-year wait time, while singles only need to save for 8.8 and 8.4 years, respectively. The majority of each area's homes are affordable for couples (91 and 93 percent) but dip a little more for single Houstonians (58 percent compared to San Antonio's 63 percent). Median incomes are the lowest in Texas, with Houston couples making $85,000 ($39,000 for singles) and San Antonio couples earning $76,000 ($36,300 for singles).

No matter how disappointing it might look for Texans, at least it's way better than the situation in California. In San Jose, it can take singles 30 years to save for a down payment — typically the life of a home loan itself. San Francisco and Los Angeles are only marginally better, at 27.8 and 26.8 years.

Single and itching to sign the mortgage papers now? Go house-hunting in Indianapolis, which only demands 7.5 years of saving time from singles, or Detroit and Cleveland, which both clock in at 8 years.

reports zillow

homebuying news

Texas ranks among the top 20 markets for homebuyers under 35

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

In 2025, Texas had more mortgage applicants under 35 years old than any other state in the country, the report found.

The Lone Star State is emerging as a top destination for young adult homebuyers, a new report has confirmed, with nearly 23 percent of all mortgage applications submitted by individuals under 35 years old.

Texas ranked No. 18 in SmartAsset's new study, "Where Young Adults are House Hunting," making it one of the most sought-after U.S. states "where the next generation of homeowners may be gaining the strongest foothold."

To determine where younger Americans are most actively pursuing homeownership, SmartAsset's analysts examined mortgage application data in all 50 states in 2025, and calculated the share of applications filed by buyers younger than 35 relative to all applicants.

A total 259,737 Texas homebuyers under 35 submitted mortgage applications in the last year alone — making Texas the state with the highest number of young adult applications in the country.

California and Florida, respectively, had the second- and third-highest numerical rate of young adult homebuyers with 170,434 and 159,429 applications in each state. But they still ranked at the bottom of the national list with the lowest percentage of young adult applications relative to all applicants in 2025 — at 14.7 and 14.8 percent.

North Dakota leads the nation as the top state for young homeowners with over 28 percent of all mortgage applications in 2025 submitted by homebuyers under 35, making up 6,551 applications.

SmartAsset also revealed something many homeowners might already know: younger Americans are more likely to pursue homeownership in states with lower housing costs.

"In each of the four states with the highest share of mortgage applications from adults younger than 35, the typical home value is less than $300,000: North Dakota (No. 1), West Virginia (No. 2), Nebraska (No. 3) and Iowa (No. 4)," the report's author wrote.

In Texas, the typical home is worth $302,187, which is the 18th highest in the U.S. Meanwhile, West Virginia and Mississippi are the only two states with home values under $200,000, the lowest nationwide.

Young potential homebuyers looking for a home in Dallas need to make about $83,000 to afford a starter home. Many surrounding suburbs also have high appeal for first-time homebuyers, such as McKinney and Plano, which offer a high quality of life for homeowners that want to start a family.

High home prices aren't the only challenges keeping young Americans from becoming homeowners, the report said. Other challenges like high interest rates and limited supply are also plaguing would-be homebuyers.

"According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, nearly 9 in 10 younger Americans say it is harder for them to buy a home than it was for their parents," the report said. "Nonetheless, younger buyers continue to aspire to homeownership, navigating an uneven landscape of affordability and opportunity."

real estate homebuying housing market smartasset reports