Dallas Rising

See how dramatically the Dallas skyline has changed since 2007

Dallas skyline in mid-2015.

Those of us who have lived in Dallas for the better part of the last decade have seen some dramatic changes in downtown, Uptown and the Design District. But still it’s hard to believe the time-lapse photographs we stumbled upon at Rentcafe.com.

The nationwide apartment search website turned to Google Street View to help visualize Dallas’ vertical transformation, thanks to properties such as Perot Museum of Nature and Science, Museum Tower, SkyHouse Dallas, and Alta Design District. See for yourself:

Perot Museum of Nature and Science
The $95.6 million, 180,000-square-foot Perot Museum opened in late 2012. Designed by Morphosis Architects, the building has unique features such as a 54-foot, continuous-flow escalator contained in a 150-foot, glass-enclosed, tube-like structure.

SkyHouse Dallas
Completed in 2014, the 24-story, 336-unit tower sits in the heart of Victory Park, at 2320 N. Houston St., offering easy access to shopping, dining, American Airlines Center and Katy Trail. The building also features a rooftop lounge with a saltwater pool.

1900 McKinney
Designed by famed architects Gromatzyi Dupree and Associates, the 27-floor, 230-unit rental tower was completed in 2009 and was the first multifamily residential tower to become LEED certified in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. 1900 McKinney includes amenities such as a rooftop swimming pool, clubhouse and seven-level parking garage.

Across the street is 2000 McKinney, which has approximately 442,355 rentable square feet spread over 21 stories. Also visible in the far right of the image is Granite Properties’ 17Seventeen McKinney.

Park Seventeen
Completed in 2010, the 19-story 17Seventeen McKinney shares a full city block with Gables at Park 17, a 26-story residential tower comprising 292 luxury apartment homes. Both LEED-certified properties were designed by Good Fulton & Farrell Architects. The 42-story Museum Tower can be seen in the distance.

Saint Ann Court
Finished in 2009, the office building features 320,000 square feet of leasable space on 26 floors. Designed by Los Angeles-based Shimoda Design Group, Saint Ann Court is the sixth phase within the 17-phase Harwood District.

Alta Design District, 1400 Hi-Line
Located at 1531 Inspiration Dr., Alta Design District provides residents with a contemporary living environment in a convenient location. The nearby 1400 Hi-Line also offers easy access to the area’s shopping and dining destinations, as well as the Katy Trail. The 23-story, 314-unit multifamily community includes premier amenities such as a saltwater infinity-edge pool and rooftop park.

Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre
The 12-story Wyly Theatre opened in 2009 a part of the AT&T Performing Arts Center that also includes the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House, Annette Strauss Square, and Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park. Also pictured (center) is the KPMG Plaza Hall Arts, which is on track to be delivered in summer 2015. It’s the new home for tenants such as Jackson Walker, UMB Bank, Hall Financial Group and Stephan Pyles.

Omni Dallas Hotel
The 23-story hotel, connected via sky bridge to the Dallas Convention Center, has more than 1,000 guest rooms and suites and 110,000 square feet of event space. The spa isn’t too shabby, either.

Museum Tower
Completed in 2013, the controversial 42-story neighbor of Nasher Sculpture Center consists of 115 residential condominiums, ranging from 1,650 to 8,700 square feet.

One Victory Park
Built in 2008, the 17-story office tower provides 445,000 square feet of premier office space. Across the street from One Victory Park is luxury high-rise condo building The House.

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Photos and information courtesy of Rentcafe.com.

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This is the income you need to buy a starter home in Dallas right now

Photo by Zac Gudakov on Unsplash

Dallas and Austin lead the nation for improving starter-home affordability.

A new housing affordability report shows Dallas is among the nation's top metros for improving starter-home affordability. First-time buyers are finally catching a small break, with the income needed to purchase a median-priced starter home falling in 2026.

Dallas residents need to earn $83,096 to afford a median-priced home in the metro area, or 5.1 percent less than they did last year, the Redfin report found.

Dallas had the third-biggest decline in the income needed to afford a starter home out of the 50 U.S. metros analyzed in the report. Redfin also determined that all starter home listings in Dallas are "affordable" based on the city's median household income — which the report estimates at $103,144.

Dallas still has a far higher income required to afford a starter home compared to the national average, but affordability is improving slightly across the board. Americans need to make $70,693 to afford the typical starter home, according to the report's findings.

"The income needed to buy a starter home is declining while earnings are rising," the report said. "The typical American household earns an estimated $87,599, about $17,000 more than what’s needed to buy the median-priced U.S. starter home. That gap is widening: A year ago, the typical American earned roughly $12,500 more than they needed to buy a starter home."

Still, starter home affordability is "still often out of reach" for first-time homebuyers in expensive real estate markets due to "near high record" sale prices and soaring mortgage rates, the study said.

In neighboring Fort Worth, residents only need to make $77,886 to afford a starter home — an attainable milestone based on the city's estimated median household income of $93,102. Fort Worth ranks fourth nationwide for its year-over-year improvement in starter home affordability.

For additional comparison, this is the income needed to afford a starter home in other major Texas metros:

Austin – $92,607 (down 6.1 percent)
Houston – $70,384 (down 4 percent)
San Antonio – $62,859 (down 3.7 percent)

Unfortunately, affording a home in the overall housing market is further straining Americans' wallets. American households need to make just under $110,000 afford the typical U.S. home, but Redfin's evaluation found the typical household makes about $22,000 less than that.

"The discrepancy is partly because the overall market is driven by outsized price increases in the luxury segment, and outsized price increases in places like San Francisco and West Palm Beach, where affluent buyers are active," the report said. "At the same time, some would-be buyers of starter homes are pulling back because they typically earn less money and are more sensitive to affordability pressures."

The top 10 U.S. metros with the biggest declines in the income required to afford the typical starter home are:

No. 1 – Austin, Texas
No. 2 – Oakland, California
No. 3 – Dallas, Texas
No. 4 – Fort Worth, Texas
No. 5 – Denver, Colorado
No. 6 – San Francisco, California
No. 7 – Phoenix, Arizona
No. 8 – Las Vegas, Nevada
No. 9 – Houston, Texas
No. 10 – Los Angeles, California

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This is the income you need to buy a starter home in Dallas right now