The roofs are on fire

Fast-growing Dallas neighbor takes title as No. 1 U.S. housing market, report says

Frisco is growing, and homes are flying off the market.

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At least by one measure, the Dallas-area housing market is 100-degrees-in-the-summer hot.

A study released August 24 by personal finance website WalletHub ranks four North Texas cities among the 10 most attractive real estate markets in the U.S. Frisco grabs the No. 1 spot, with McKinney at No. 4, Denton at No. 5, and Allen at No. 6.

The only other Texas market in the top 10 is second-ranked Austin.

Looking in particular at Frisco, its placement atop the WalletHub ranking stems in large part from its eye-popping population growth. At a rate of 71 percent, Frisco was the fastest-growing large U.S. city from 2010 to 2019, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Today, Frisco’s population exceeds 208,000.

Frisco remains one of the most active cities in DFW in terms of home construction. Through May 31, there were 1,283 residential building permits (not quite as many as nearby Celina).

To determine the most attractive real estate markets, WalletHub compared 300 cities across 18 key metrics. The data ranges from appreciation of median home price to job growth.

The Dallas-Fort Worth real estate market “is doing great after recovering from the blows of the pandemic since July of last year. Demand for single-family homes has risen and supply has lagged since the second half of last year,” according to Norada Real Estate Investments.

Highlighting the hotness of the DFW market, Norada notes that the region’s supply of available homes stood at 1.1 months in the second quarter, and that the median home price climbed 22.4 percent to $349,381.

“2021 has represented a year of strengths in many financial areas. The stock market and bank account balances are up, while unemployment and interest rates are low. These factors represent ideal conditions for the housing market, and as long as we continue to see shortages in housing inventory, we should still see an ideal environment for housing growth,” Job Hammond, secretary-treasurer of the Austin Board of Realtors and an adjunct professor at Austin Community College, tells WalletHub.

Here are the 10 most attractive real estate markets in the country, as judged by WalletHub.

Frisco
Austin
Gilbert, Arizona
McKinney
Denton
Allen
Durham, North Carolina
Reno, Nevada
Roseville, California
Nashville, Tennessee

lists rankings

hi neighbor!

Dallas keeps movers on speed dial as No. 2 city for recent moves, says report

More millennials are moving to Austin than Dallas, a new report says.

Getty Images/Courtney K

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Dallas is shifting as people move into the city and around it. A new population analysis by online loan marketplace LendingTree has named Dallas the No. 2 metro for recent movers.

The study used population data from a 2021 U.S. Census Bureau survey to determine householders and renters who moved to their current home in 2019 or later. It reflects people moving around Dallas as well as moving into it, so it's not just new residents being counted.

About 35 percent of combined homeowners and renters living in their current Dallas homes moved there within the three-year scope of the study. For homeowners, that's about 19 percent, compared to about 59 percent of renters.

The three-year median home value appreciation rate in Dallas was 16.15 percent, the study says, echoing similar reports that the city remains one of the top housing markets for growth.

But other reports that are not looking at such longterm averages are showing that the market seems to be stabilizing recently. In August of 2023, Zillow reported home prices in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington dropped 1.4 percent from the previous year to $309,340.

Rent appreciation was not as dramatic, but renters are surely feeling it regardless. The data shows the three-year median gross rent appreciation rate was 8.49 percent.

Renters are much more likely than homeowners to move due to multiple factors: personal circumstances, rising rent prices, landlords who want to change their lease terms, and many others.

"While some regulations protect renters and make it harder for landlords to force them out of their homes, these protections aren’t always robust," the study says. "Because of this, renters can more frequently find themselves in situations where they’re forced to move, even if they like their current home or are strapped for cash."

Dallas fell right behind Austin, which saw nearly 39 percent of homeowners and renters moving between 2019 and 2021. Houston was the only other Texas city to make the top 10, ranking No. 7 with nearly 34 percent of homeowners and renters moving within the same time frame.

The U.S. metros with the largest shares of homeowners and renters who moved in 2019 or later are:

No. 1 – Austin, Texas (38.82 percent)
No. 2 – Dallas, Texas (34.91 percent)
No. 3 – Las Vegas, Nevada (34.81 percent)
No. 4 – Denver, Colorado (34.71 percent)
No. 5 – Orlando, Florida (34.55 percent)
No. 6 – Phoenix, Arizona (34.03 percent)
No. 7 – Houston, Texas (33.50 percent)
No. 8 – Jacksonville, Florida (33.27 percent)
No. 9 – Nashville, Tennessee (33.14 percent)
No. 10 – Salt Lake City, Utah (32.94 percent)

The full report can be found on lendingtree.com.

LendingTree Population Analysis dallas population growth reports