Ouch!

Dallas-Fort Worth renters shelled out whopping $104 billion in the past decade

DFW rents have risen 83.7 percent in the past decade.

HIgs2006/Getty Images

Dallas-Fort Worth may be less burdensome for renters than other Texas metros, but, in total, renters here have spent more in the past decade than anywhere else in the state.

From 2010 through 2019, renters in the Dallas-Fort Worth area shelled out $104.2 billion for their living quarters, according to an analysis released December 11 by real estate website Zillow. By comparison, the size of the Puerto Rican economy is nearly $100 billion.

If the $104.2 billion figure weren’t jarring enough, the total sum of rent paid by DFW residents skyrocketed 83.7 percent from 2009 to 2019. In 2019 alone, local renters spent $13.2 billion on housing, up 3.2 percent from 2018. The current median rent is $1,460 per month, up 1.3 percent from a year ago, Zillow says.

Fortunately, there might be some relief in sight.

“With rental appreciation expected to decrease in the coming year and a homeownership rate that has been ticking up over the past few years, a small or even negative change in total rental spending could be in the cards in the early 2020s,” Zillow economist Joshua Clark says in a release.

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin, Houston, and San Antonio weren’t immune to the costly leap, the Zillow analysis shows.

The total sum of rent paid by Austinites jumped 92.6 percent from 2009 to 2019. That’s the highest increase among all the major metro areas included in the Zillow analysis. (Raleigh, North Carolina, was second with a 91 percent increase.)

From 2010 through 2019, renters in the Austin area spent $36.7 billion for their living quarters, about the size of the economy of Latvia, a small country in northern Europe.

As for the Houston area, the entire bill for rent came to $90.4 billion from 2010 through 2019, adding up to a 10-year spike of 65.8 percent, the analysis indicates. That total is close to the size of the economy in the Dominican Republic. In 2019, Houston renters coughed up $10.8 billion, representing a 1.7 percent increase compared with last year, Zillow says.

Renters in the San Antonio area saw a smaller overall jump in the rent total compared with Austin, DFW, and Houston. From 2010 through 2019, renters in the area spent $26.8 billion on housing, accounting for a 10-year increase of 47.8 percent, the analysis shows. That sum is roughly equivalent to the size of Cambodia’s economy. This year, San Antonio renters paid $2.9 billion, down 0.4 percent from 2018, Zillow says.

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Anna Land Buy

Cox Family sells 116 acres in Anna for mixed-use development

Courtesy photo

Anna, Texas

A major land sale in Anna is paving the way for new mixed-use development. According to a release, Frisco-based Rockhill Capital & Investments struck a deal with the Cox Family to acquire 116 acres at County Road 371 and SH-5, approximately two miles east of US-75.

Younger Partners Executive Managing Director John St. Clair, Vice President Tyler Hemenway, and Associate Davis Willoughby represented the seller in the transaction. The sales price was not disclosed.

Rockhill will sell fully entitled tracts of land to homebuilders, multifamily, and commercial developers.

The single-family portion will be built in phases with development of 325 single-family lots, says Rockhill Chief Development Officer Brent Libby in a statement.

“Construction will likely begin early in Q2 2025,” Libby said. “We’ve already sold 82 of the 116 acres to homebuilder Taylor Morrison and they should break ground first.”

The remaining acres are already being snapped up including 9.5 acres on SH 5 that is under contract to a commercial developer, and interest from a user/developer on the remaining 24 acres, which is zoned for multifamily.

The Cox Family owned the land for decades and had received multiple offers on the property over the years, but were never ready to sell.

“Ultimately, the family wanted to capitalize on the land market before unforeseen market factors took place,” said St. Clair of Younger Partners. “This deal took place at the right time with the right buyer.”

The acquisition nvolved a lengthy zoning process to acquire the land. Rockhill created a Public Improvement District (PID) on the single-family portion of the land, which helped the deal move forward.

Rockhill already has land holdings in nearby high-growth cities of Howe, Van Alstyne, and Sherman, and it ain't stopping here.

“We’ll continue to source and acquire land in the area where we can add value through entitlements, and either develop the property or hold it for some time and exit to another developer or end user,” Libby says.

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