Affordability report

This is the salary you need to afford rent in Dallas right now

Dallas is actually one of the cheaper large cities to rent in Texas.

Photo by Matt Pasant

What does it take to afford to live in Dallas? Surprisingly less than elsewhere in Texas — and the U.S. — according to a new report on rental affordability.

Apartment List analyzed the 100 largest U.S. cities to find the minimum gross income needed to afford a local apartment. When compared to the actual median household income, renters in 24 of the cities studied are burdened by the cost of living in a two-bedroom apartment. But that's not the case in Dallas, which lands on the affordable end of the spectrum.

In the Big D, the median rent price for a two-bedroom apartment clocks in at $1,111. That means a local renter here needs a gross annual income of $44,480 to afford rent without being cost-burdened, which is defined as spending more than 30 percent of gross income on rent. Apartment List breaks that down to an hourly wage of $21.

Meanwhile, the estimated median household income in Dallas for 2018 was $48,798, giving renters some cushion.

More Americans are renting, in part because of rising housing costs, and many of them are burdened by the cost. "Nearly half of renting households are cost-burdened," the report says. "The demographics of renting are changing as well. As homeownership becomes more and more unattainable for millennials, many forego purchasing a home and opt to rent further into adulthood."

Across the Lone Star State, those earning the median local income are out of the woods when it comes to being cost-burdened by rent, and about half of the Texas cities studied cost less than Dallas: San Antonio, Corpus Christi, Houston, Laredo, El Paso, and Lubbock.

Interestingly, with the exception of Austin (No. 2), Texas' more expensive places to rent are in the Metroplex.

Plano, the most expensive, has a median rent of $1,435 and a required median income of $57,440, but that's not a stretch for residents, as the actual median income is $91,412. Arlington comes in at No. 3 with a median rent of $1,232 and required median income of $49,320.

No. 4 Garland's median rent of $1,225 requires earning $48,920; No. 5 Irving's median rent of $1,219 requires earning $48,680; and No. 6 Fort Worth surprisingly outranks Dallas with a median rent of $1,147 and required income of $45,920.

But this all pales in comparison to the most expensive U.S. city on the list: Fremont, California, where the median rent price is $3,731 a month and Apartment List recommends renters earn at least $150,040 annually, or a whopping $72 an hour.

Rent Report

Here's how many Texans are paying too much for rent, report reveals

Grace Cary/Getty Images

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Millions of Texas renters, both current residents and new arrivals, suffer from wallet whiplash.

A new report from the Texas Affiliation of Affordable Housing Providers shows 45 percent of the state’s renters spend more than 30 percent of their income on housing. Renters occupy more than 4.2 million Texas households, representing nearly half of the state’s residents.

Worse yet, 81 percent of extremely low-income households in Texas spend more than 50 percent of their income on housing, the report says. For that income group, Texas has a shortage of 864,000 affordable homes.

Thirty percent is the standard financial benchmark for spending too much income on rent, while 50 percent puts a renter in the “severely cost-burdened” bucket.

“To sustain growth and secure future prosperity, Texas will need more than 320,000 additional affordable homes [rented and owned] to address workforce housing affordability and meet the demands of a growing population,” says the report.

“Today, the state is creating thousands of new jobs,” the report adds, “but housing supply has not kept pace with demand, driving up housing costs and constraining continued economic growth.”

Not surprisingly, people who live in or move to three of Texas’ biggest metro areas get hit with the state’s highest apartment rental rates. Here’s Apartments.com’s list of the 10 most expensive places for renters in Texas, based on apartments whose average size ranges from 713 square feet in Austin to 771 square feet in Plano:

1. Frisco — $1,477 per month
2. Plano — $1,461 per month
3. Austin — $1,417 per month
4. Dallas — $1,413 per month
5. McKinney — $1,363 per month
6. Grand Prairie — $1,327 per month
7. Irving — $1,318 per month
8. Garland — $1,237 per month
9. Fort Worth — $1,217 per month
10. Houston — $1,183 per month

San Antonio boasts some of the lowest average rent among Texas’ 10 most affordable markets: $1,075 per month. Mesquite, a Dallas-Fort Worth suburb, also fits into that category, with average monthly rent of $1,052.

Earlier this month, Gov. Greg Abbott announced more than $114 million in grants to help develop or rehabilitate properties, providing more than 4,400 affordable rental units.

“As our state grows, we must ensure that Texans have access to the affordable housing they need to thrive,” Abbott says.

rent report income cost burden affordability rent prices