Hot Properties

Real estate authority asserts Dallas is second hottest U.S. market right now

As the spring homebuying season approaches, the Dallas-Fort Worth market is expected to be the second-hottest in the country behind only Waco, according to experts at Realtor.com. By examining the median age of housing inventory in February and traffic on the site, Realtor.com’s chief economist Jonathan Smoke says these two Texas markets are primed to lead the pack.

The median age of housing inventory in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington is 62 days. That’s the best in Texas and 41 days shorter than the national average of 103. Although Waco doesn’t appear in the top 20 on that list, it earns the title as hottest projected market because of online activity.

Active Waco listings on Realtor.com are viewed, on average, 335 times — the highest in the country. Dallas comes in second, at 219 pageviews per active listing. To put that in perspective, the national average is 73 pageviews per active listing. No other Texas market made the top 20.

Smoke says that for Dallas, both metrics indicate that buyers are gearing up to hit a market that sellers are taking advantage of.

“It’s a good measure that supply is getting tighter when you see that the age is getting lower, then demand is increasing faster than supply,” he says. “It’s a two-edged sword. It’s great if you’re an existing homeowner or seller, but it’s what’s behind prices accelerating and declines in affordability.”

The supply issue is affected by an inventory that shrank 30 percent between January 2014 and January 2015, as there were 16,000 homes available for sale in the area at the beginning of 2015.

“It is tight,” Smoke says. “It’s an issue broadly across the U.S., and one way to characterize what we’re seeing in Dallas is that it’s following the national trend but more intensely.”

Smoke says that there is relief for buyers on the horizon, because February’s inventory is expected to be up from January when the full numbers come in later this month.

“Typically you see an inventory increase this time of year,” he says. “Warmer markets get prepared for the spring selling season. There’ll be a large number of listings in March; the market is reacting, and inventory is increasing.

“We think that the inventory is going to be up [in Dallas] about 4.5 percent.”

Here is the complete list of Realtor.com’s 20 hottest markets right now:

Waco, Texas
Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
Santa Rosa, California
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colorado
Vallejo-Fairfield, California
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Fort Wayne, Indiana
Santa Maria-Santa Barbara, California
Charleston, West Virginia
San Luis Obispo et al, California
Columbus, Ohio
Boulder, Colorado
Detroit-Warren-Dearborn, Michigan
Hartford-West Hartford et al, Connecticut
Manchester-Nashua, New Hampshire
San Francisco-Oakland et al, California
San Diego-Carlsbad, California
Charleston-North Charleston, South Carolina
Toledo, Ohio
Boston-Cambridge-Newton, Maine/New Hampshire

reports

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

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