Crib versus cribs
Dallas apartment dwellers spend this much on childcare vs. monthly rent
Nationally, parents who are apartment dwellers pay almost as much for childcare as they do for rent. And in Houston, the numbers aren't much different.
A new analysis by apartment marketplace HotPads, part of the Zillow Group, shows the average cost of monthly childcare in the Houston metro area face median monthly rent of $1,580, only $105 more than the $1,475 in average monthly expenses for childcare. The total for both categories is $3,055.
“As rents and childcare costs march steadily higher, keeping up with these rising costs may be one of many factors keeping parents up at night,” Joshua Clark, an economist at HotPads, says in a release.
More than one-third of renters have kids at home, according to HotPads.
“Rent appreciation has slowed from recent highs,” Clark says, “but as the economic recovery matures, childcare costs will likely continue to rise. For renters with young children in childcare, that means any potential savings from softer rent appreciation could quickly be eroded by higher childcare expenses.”
In DFW, the median rent works out to $1,660 a month, compared with average monthly childcare costs of $1,340, HotPads says. That’s a difference of $320. The total tab for rent and childcare: $3,000 a month. For apartment dwellers, that’s a wider gap between rent and childcare than in the Houston, Austin, and San Antonio metro areas, according to the HotPads analysis.
By comparison, moms and dads in the San Antonio metro area who are renters pay almost as much for childcare as they do for rent. According to HotPads, the median rent in the San Antonio area is $1,380 — just $95 above the average monthly childcare costs of $1,285. Those two monthly expenses add up to $2,665.
Meanwhile, in the Austin metro area, the gap between rent and childcare costs is the widest among the state’s four major markets — $260. Median rent is $1,735 a month, compared with average childcare expenses of $1,475 a month. That adds up to $3,210 a month, making it the highest overall total in the state for rent and childcare.
