Homeowner Realities

Can renters afford to buy a home in Dallas? Not really.

Though many Dallasites want to buy a house, few can afford to do so.

Photo courtesy of Briggs Freeman Sotheby's

For many, the traditional "American dream" includes buying a home. In Dallas, that dream is dissipating, as recent reports show that most local renters don't have the means to make the jump to home ownership.

Zillow released its latest rental analysis and placed Dallas squarely on its list of markets with the lowest share of renters qualified to buy — the fourth worst, to be precise. The median home price here is $189,000, but only 8.2 percent of renters have the income and credit score necessary to afford that.

The news is even worse for Houston, which wins the dubious award of least qualified city. Only 6.8 percent of renters can take a stab at securing a median $172,900 home. In both Dallas and Houston, the overall homeowner rate is about 59 percent.

Things are somewhat similar in No. 15 San Antonio, where despite 61 percent of people owning homes, only 10 percent of renters could afford to join their ranks. A median home there costs $152,300.

Austin is the lone bright spot in Texas, claiming No. 15 on the list of the highest share of renters who can afford to buy. Nearly 13 percent of on-market renters have sufficient credit scores and income to afford the median home in Austin, which runs about $252,900.

Apartment rental website Zumper confirms this, singling out Austin as the place where the gap is smallest between desire to own a home and buyers' ability. It conducted a survey of more than 6,000 of its users and found that while 94.3 percent of Austinites want to buy, 72.1 percent can afford a mortgage within the city proper.

In Dallas, the wish is there for 97.2 percent of Zumper users, but only 63.2 percent say they can actually make it a reality. The good news is that the figures are much, much better in Texas than in, say, San Diego, where 91.5 percent want to become homeowners, but only 20 percent think they can.

zillow reports

GP News

Grand Prairie expands to the south with new master-planned community

Rendering courtesy of Provident

Goodland Grand Prairie

The City of Grand Prairie is growing fast and expanding to make way for a new master-planned development south of US Highway 287 and along Tollway 360, in Ellis and Johnson counties.

The community development, called Goodland, is the result of Grand Prairie’s recent 1,500-acre annexation extending its southern border toward Mansfield. Overall, with the added land, Goodland will be a 5,000-acre site featuring 15,000 residences including townhomes, custom homes, and gated communities for 50,000 residents.

According to a release, it will be a “city within a city” and a 45-minute drive from Dallas-Fort Worth. Beyond housing, there will be shops, restaurants, schools, public and private event venues, regional sports fields and complexes, dance halls, churches, trail systems, city parks, ponds, and preserved green spaces.

“This is a significant step in our city’s development,” says Grand Prairie Mayor Ron Jensen in a statement. “Unlike many of our neighboring cities, we have the unique advantage of new development opportunities to our south that will drive the growth and prosperity of our city. We recognized the opportunity and took decisive action.”

Leading the development is Provident, a Dallas-based real estate firm that has created other master-planned communities across Dallas-Fort Worth, such as Preston Hollow Village and Hillstead in Collin County. Provident has plans to work nature into the space design with more than 1,600 acres of creek corridors and floodplain land.

Plans are ongoing for a centralized mixed-use walkable Town Center, complete with civic buildings and other commercial development. Further south on the property near Highway 67, light industrial uses and other private employment campuses are already underway, projects that will contribute vital tax dollars for city growth and future expansions.

“This level of placemaking is quite rare, and certainly not easy to execute, especially in a brand-new community," says Provident Managing Director Rylan Yowell in a statement. "We are committed to a long-term vision with a desire to be good stewards of the land."

A new four-lane road called Goodland Parkway will link Goodland to Grand Prairie at Tollway 360 and US Highway 287. It's set to open by December 2025.

openings