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2 Dallas neighbors shine on 2025 list of best small cities in America

Allen is one of the best small cities in America, says WalletHub.

Visit Allen, Texas/Facebook

Buzzy Dallas suburbs Allen and Flower Mound land near the top of WalletHub's 2025 list of the best small cities in America, with many more DFW neighbors earning spots on the list.

The annual survey compared more than 1,300 U.S. cities with populations between 25,000 and 100,000 residents based on 45 livability metrics categorized into five key dimensions: Affordability, economic health, education and health, quality of life, and overall safety. Cities were grouped by percentile, where the 99th percentile represents the best small American cities.

Out of the 19 total U.S. cities that ranked among the 99th percentile of best small cities in America, Carmel, Indiana; Brookfield, Washington; and Apex, North Carolina landed in the top three spots.

In Dallas-Fort Worth, Allen ranked in the 96th percentile while Flower Mound ranked in the 93rd percentile. Both cities have held on to their respective rankings for the second year in a row. Rockwall, which ranked within the 97th percentile last year, was demoted into the 89th percentile for 2025.

Located about 25 miles from downtown Dallas, Allen's overall safety ranked No. 56 in WalletHub's national ranking of the safest small cities. Allen also earned a favorable rankings for its affordability (No. 131), education and health (No. 177), and economic health (No. 181), but it lagged behind for its quality of life (No. 540).

Allen has one of the top 10 best real estate markets for 2025, and its 75013 ZIP code was the No. 1 most popular place for renters place to live in 2024. This techy suburb is also a top destination for remote workers.

Flower Mound is about 29 miles miles northwest of Dallas, and has previously topped a separate national list of the best places to live in the U.S. Personal finance website SmartAsset also ranked Flower Mound one of the top-10 most livable small cities nationwide earlier in 2025.

This popular suburb has had a string of new restaurant openings this year, including fast-casual Indian restaurant Curry Up Now and upscale Mexican eatery Los Caminos. The suburb also recently got a new Nordstrom Rack location.

WalletHub ranked Flower Mound's affordability the 44th best on its national list, but it fell behind in the remaining four categories.

Here's how WalletHub broke down Flower Mound's rank:

No. 176 – Safety
No. 256 – Economic health
No. 503 – Quality of life
No. 677 – Education and health

According to WalletHub, about 47 percent of Americans say they would prefer to live in a suburb, while less than a quarter (24 percent) would prefer to live in an urban area or a rural community (23 percent).

"Small-city life can be best for those who appreciate more wiggle room, fewer degrees of separation and shorter commutes, to name just a few of its advantages," the report said. "Granted, these little urban areas demand some tradeoffs, too, such as fewer restaurant options or shorter business hours."

Other DFW cities that appeared among the top 50th percentile of the best small American cities include:

82nd – Little Elm
79th – Southlake and Colleyville (tied)
76th – Sachse
75th – Keller
74th – Coppell and Mansfield (tied)
71st – Wylie
68th – Grapevine
61st – Burleson
58th – Waxahachie
56th – Weatherford
50th – North Richland Hills

Elsewhere in Texas, Austin-area suburbs Leander (97th) and Cedar Park (94th) were the remaining two cities to appear in the 90-99th percentile range. Leander maintained its rank for the second year in a row, but Cedar Park slipped slightly after ranking in the 95th percentile last year.

real estate suburbs wallethub dallas fort worth allen flower mound

millennial magnet

Dallas ranks among 15 hottest U.S. metros for millennial homebuyers

Photo by Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Dallas is one of the 15 hottest destinations for millennials.

Dallas and its surrounding cities have already proved to be a magnet for millennials, and now a new national housing report has established the city as one of the 15 hottest destinations for millennials, whose local homeownership rate has soared since 2018.

The number of millennials who own their homes in Dallas has grown from 229,497 to 451,826 households over the last five years (96.9 percent), according to a new housing analysis from RentCafe.

The study compared homeowner growth rates versus renter growth rates of millennials — based on Pew Research Center's definition as individuals born between 1981 and 1996 — across 107 U.S. metro areas from 2018 to 2023.

Dallas ranked No. 15 in the overall list of U.S. metros that have seen the highest increase in millennial homeowners since 2018. About 47 percent of all Dallas-area millennials own their homes, with the remaining 53 percent renting, the report found.

"The top 20 metro areas with the greatest increases in Millennial homeownership are led by sunny regions in Florida and California," the report said. "Unexpected urban hubs such as Dallas, San Antonio, Philadelphia, and New York also made the list with ownership growth rates reaching 90 percent or higher."

Dallas also ranked 27th in the national list of cities with the biggest growth rates among millennial-age renters. The number of millennial renter households jumped from 465,560 to 507,416 in five years, a 9 percent hike.

About 5.3 million millennials have become homeowners over the last five years nationwide, RentCafe's analysts said, which represents a massive 74 percent increase in millennial-owned households. The growth rate of renters was much lower in comparison.

"At the same time, the number of millennial renters in the U.S. rose by a modest 5 percent, adding approximately 600,000 households," RentCafe said. "This brings the total number of millennial homeowner households to 12.4 million, close to the 12.6 million millennial renter households."

While the rate of millennial homeowners is on the rise, the same can't be said for Gen Zers. About 12 percent of all Gen Z households in Dallas-Fort Worth own their homes, while the vast majority are renters, a separate RentCafe study found.

Elsewhere across the state, Austin (No. 7) and San Antonio (No. 10) ranked among the top 10 U.S. cities with the biggest growth rates among millennial homeowners.

The top 10 U.S. metros with the highest gains in millennial homeowners are:

No. 1 – North Port, Florida
No. 2 – Lakeland, Florida
No. 3 – Jacksonville, Florida
No. 4 – Stockton, California
No. 5 – Oxnard, California
No. 6 – Palm Bay, Florida
No. 7 – Austin, Texas
No. 8 – Tuscon, Arizona
No. 9 – Deltona, Florida
No. 10 – San Antonio, Texas

rentcafe study real estate housing report millennials dallas