Supersize it

Dallas is home to one of country’s biggest concentrations of McMansions

There are mansions, and then there are McMansions. Dallas has them all.

Photo courtesy of Allie Beth Allman & Associates

To be sure, North Texas is heralded for its massive ranches and sprawling estates. But it turns out the Dallas area also is a mecca for McMansions.

According to a new ranking from Realtor.com, Dallas is the sixth most McMansion-y metro area among the country’s 150 biggest metros. That’s based on the percentage of homes for sale measuring at least 3,000 square feet.

Realtor.com’s research unearthed nearly 9,000 of these properties listed on the website, up 35 percent from two years ago. This represents about 40 percent of the Dallas-area homes on the market, Realtor.com says.

Realtor.com did acknowledge a limitation in its McMansion sleuthing. The research encompasses all homes on the market that have at least 3,000 square feet, not just those that could be dubbed McMansions.

“Sure, this includes some tasteful, large homes and legit mansions,” Realtor.com says. “But it was impossible to separate those from the McMansions — it’s rare to see the word ‘tacky’ in a home listing.”

So, what qualifies as a “tacky” McMansion?

“The term was first attached to some of the brash would-be luxury homes cropping up in status-crazed Los Angeles,” Realtor.com explains. “Before long, developers went McMansion Mad. From coast to coast, they erected pricey, supersized homes that hogged just about every square inch of their lots. They were fancy. They were heavily ornamented. They were made to impress.”

McMansion construction largely stalled during the housing crash and the Great Recession, according to Realtor.com. But now that the economy is back on solid footing, McMansion construction appears to be making a comeback.

“If a buyer wants a McMansion, then come to Texas — I have some great ones,” Roxann Taylor, a broker at Engel & Völkers Dallas Southlake, tells Realtor.com. “Builders are putting up 4,000- to 6,000-square-foot homes, but they can’t build them quick enough.”

By the way, the average new single-family home in the U.S. has about 2,600 square feet. In other words, a lot of us don’t occupy McMansions.

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Rent report

Texas opens the door to more renters than any other state, report says

Renters, renting, rent, buying a house, homeowners

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Texas remains attractive to renters thanks to factors such as affordability, job growth, and apartment availability.

Texas reigns as the country’s No. 1 magnet for renters. According to an Apartments.com analysis, Texas gained nearly 73,000 net new renters from 2023 to 2024.

That figure, pulled from U.S. Census Bureau data, takes into account people who moved to and away from Texas.

Apartments.com says Texas remains attractive to renters thanks to factors such as affordability, job growth, and apartment availability. Many of these renters arrive from high-cost states like California and New York.

Among the state’s four major metro areas:

Dallas-Fort Worth rent growth recently slipped into negative territory as a wave of new apartments hit the market. “With modern housing choices backed by a strong job market that supports income growth, it’s easy to see why renters are flocking to Dallas,” says Apartments.com.
Houston continues to stand out nationally for relative affordability and high apartment availability. “Though the city has seen growth in recent years, a steady supply of apartment communities has kept rents low,” according to Apartments.com.
San Antonio now has the highest vacancy rate among major U.S. apartment markets (15.7 percent).
Austin continues to see widespread financial incentives for new renters, with more than 60 percent of properties offering one to two months’ free rent.

“Taken together, the data suggests Texas is entering a new housing phase: Demand remains strong, but the state’s massive apartment buildout is beginning to give renters more leverage than they’ve had in years,” Apartments.com says.

According to Apartment List, these are the top sources, in descending order, of new renters for each of Texas’ four major metros:

Dallas — Houston, Austin, New York City.
Austin — Dallas, Houston, San Antonio.
Houston — Dallas, Austin, New York City.
San Antonio — Austin, Houston, Dallas.

“For renters looking to move out of California, Texas was the most popular destination, edging out neighboring Nevada and Arizona,” Apartment List says.