Rise of the renter

Dallas-Fort Worth added more apartments in last decade than any other U.S. metro, says report

DFW will end this decade with 149,000 new apartments having been built in the last 10 years.

Photo courtesy of 5 Mockingbird

You might call this the Decade of the Renter in Dallas-Fort Worth. New data shows DFW added more new apartments from 2010 through 2019 than any other U.S. metro area.

In a housing review of the 2010s published December 16, apartment website RentCafé estimates DFW will end this decade with 149,000 new apartments having been built during the 10-year span. That eclipses the No. 2 metro area, New York City, with an estimated 125,100 new apartments added during this decade.

In third place is Houston, with an estimated 114,100 new apartments constructed in this decade, followed by Washington, D.C. (113,300) and Los Angeles (98,000).

Two other Texas metros made the top 20:

Austin, claiming the No. 8 spot with 75,400 new apartments.
San Antonio, grabbing the No. 13 spot with 47,700 new apartments.

All told, the four major metro areas in Texas have added 386,200 new apartments from 2010 through 2019, RentCafé data shows.

In May, RealPage Inc., a Richardson-based provider of property management software, reported the Dallas side of the Metroplex had accounted for 81 percent of the region’s new apartments built this decade. In RealPage’s tally, Dallas was the lone market in the U.S. to land three submarkets in the top 15 for apartment completions from 2010 through 2019 — Intown Dallas (14,097 new apartments), Frisco (12,299), and Allen/McKinney (10,335). From 2010 through 2019, Intown Dallas alone represented almost 10 percent of the region’s new apartments, RealPage says.

The furious pace of apartment construction in DFW has helped accommodate explosive population growth. From April 2010 to July 2018, the metro area’s population soared by more than 1.1 million, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“How much more can Dallas grow? Unlike some other major metro areas, it’s got nothing but land surrounding it: Dallas is the largest inland metropolitan area in the U.S. without any navigable link to the ocean,” real estate investment platform Roofstock says. “While many factors are contributing to Dallas’ population boom — including affordability, climate and accessibility — much of the credit goes to its thriving jobs market and diverse economy.”

In terms of population growth, Houston nipped on DFW’s heels from 2010 to 2018, adding almost 1.08 million residents, the Census Bureau says. During the same period, comparatively rapid growth occurred in the Austin metro area (nearly 452,000 new residents) and San Antonio metro area (more than 375,000 new residents).

As Texas’ major metro areas keep experiencing a population surge, the rise of the apartment renter promises to continue.

RealPage data published December 9 shows construction of 22,879 new apartments had been approved from October 2018 to October 2019 in the Houston area. That’s a year-over-year jump of 77.8 percent.

The numbers for DFW (19,562 permits, up 7.3 percent) and Austin (13,981, up 15 percent) were lower, but they still ranked among RealPage’s top 10 metro markets for the number of apartment construction permits issued.

Within U.S. metro areas, the cities of Houston, Austin, and San Antonio ranked among the top 10 places for apartment construction permits issued from October 2018 to October 2019, according to RealPage.

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No Cap

Dallas was a top-10 destination for Gen Zers on the move for 2023

Photo by Lance Asper on Unsplash

Who wouldn't want to live in a Gen Z paradise like Dallas?

As Gen Z enters adulthood, many are flocking to the nation's biggest cultural hubs like New York City, Los Angeles — and now Dallas, which had the ninth-highest inflow of Gen Zers in 2023.

Dallas' new reputation as a Gen Z hotspot was unveiled in a recent report by American home improvement brand This Old House, which analyzed migration trends across multiple generations using 2023 U.S. Census Bureau data.

Dallas saw an influx of 13,770 Gen Z residents last year to become the generation's No. 9 most popular city. That's 4,223 more Gen Zers than the net migration rate from 2022, the report found.

Real estate marketplace Zillow seems to agree on a statewide scale, declaring Texas as the No. 1 destination for Gen Zers on the move in 2024.

However, as Gen Z Dallasites may have learned, it's going to take a big bite out of their paychecks to live in such a highly sought after city. A March RentCafe housing cost analysis predicted Gen Z adults living in Dallas are likely to spend over $149,000 on rent by the time they are 30 years old.

While Dallas saw big gains in its Gen Z population last year, many other big cities saw a mass exodus. Plano, for example — which gained 1,295 Gen Z residents in 2022 — lost 4,028 Gen Zers in 2023, the report discovered.

The biggest Gen-Z exodus was in El Paso, with a drop of 5,607 — "a sharp turn from 2022 when the city saw an increase," the report said. "Other cities, including Plano, Texas; Memphis, Tennessee; McKinney, Texas; and Wichita, Kansas, are seeing similar declines."

"Gen X, baby boomers, and the Silent Generation are also moving away from major cities, particularly New York City and Washington, D.C.," the report said. "They’re heading to some of the same cities as Gen Z, including Houston and Jacksonville, Florida."

The top 10 cities that gained the most Gen Z residents in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York
No. 2 – Los Angeles, California
No. 3 – Houston, Texas
No. 4 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
No. 5 – Chicago, Illinois
No. 6 – San Diego, California
No. 7 – Seattle, Washington
No. 8 – Charlotte, North Carolina
No. 9 – Dallas, Texas
No. 10 – Minneapolis, Minnesota

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