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

living single

Dallas lands among 10 most affordable U.S. metros for living alone

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In DFW, renters can afford to live solo.

Not everyone is cut out for living with roommates, but finding an affordable place to live alone can be tricky. Luckily, Dallas-Fort Worth sits among the top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for living by yourself, according to a new report.

Analysts at Apartments.com discovered North Texas renters spend the seventh lowest share of their monthly income on single-bedroom rent out of the 50 biggest metros in the U.S.

The study used a 30 percent "common budgeting guideline" to calculate the share of median renter household income spent on one-bedroom asking rents across the 50 largest U.S. metros, and determined renters can only afford to live alone in 24 of the 50 metros without crossing the 30 percent threshold.

The median annual income of a DFW renter household is $63,172, and the findings show the typical asking rent for a one-bedroom apartment comes out to $1,348 per month. The study determined single renters spend 25.6 percent of their monthly income on rent based on the budgeting suggestion.

Texas' favorable rental market also extends outside of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex: Austin surprised as the No. 1 most affordable metro for living alone, and San Antonio appeared among the top 10.

Austin renters spend the smallest share of their income on single-bedroom apartment rent, at 23.1 percent. That's based on a median renter household income of $70,008 and a $1,348 monthly one-bedroom asking rent price.

Dwindling rent prices and the prevalence of major tech employers are also attracting new renters, and the city has an 11.6 percent apartment vacancy rate.

"The average rent in Austin has decreased year over year, and construction of new housing increased by 30 percent over the past decade," the report's author wrote. "Tax incentives in Texas draw large tech corporations, like Google and Apple, to the Austin area, which has increased average wages, added more jobs to the local economy, and attracted renters in the process."

San Antonio ranked right above DFW in sixth place nationwide with solo renters spending 25.4 percent of their monthly income on single-bedroom rent, coincidentally the same share as single renters living in Raleigh, North Carolina and Salt Lake City, Utah.

This is the income and one-bedroom rent data in San Antonio:

$51,029 – median renter household income
$1,082 – one-bedroom monthly asking rent

A separate Apartments.com survey found 39 percent of U.S. adults would never feel comfortable living with a roommate, and 16 percent of renters would rather pay more in rent to live alone than consider living with a roommate.

"Factors contributing to lower rents may include recent high levels of construction, rising vacancy rates as renter demand catches up to supply, and fewer regulations, such as flexible zoning and lower development costs compared to other parts of the country," the report said. "Living alone has become a non-negotiable for many renters, and some renters are willing to make tradeoffs to afford this lifestyle."

The top 10 most affordable U.S. metros for living alone are:

No. 1 – Austin
No. 2 – Oklahoma City
No. 3 – Phoenix
No. 4 – Raleigh, North Carolina
No. 5 – Salt Lake City, Utah
No. 6 – San Antonio
No. 7 – Dallas-Fort Worth
No. 8 – Denver
No. 9 – Portland, Oregon
No. 10 – Columbus, Ohio

real estate rent rent prices apartments affordability reports