buying in the big city

Here's how Dallas ranks among best cities for first-time homebuyers

13103 Halwin Circle, Dallas home for sale

This beautiful home in Dallas is on the market for just under $400,000.

Photo courtesy of Zillow

As Dallas continues rapidly expanding and the local housing market struggles to find its footing, a new WalletHub analysis has revealed it is the 51st best large U.S. city for first-time homebuyers, and the No. 7 best big city in Texas.

WalletHub's study ranked 300 U.S. cities across 22 metrics based on affordability, quality of life, and the status of each city's real estate market, including factors like active listings per capita, homeownership rates for millennials, and more. Cities were ranked overall and based on population size: Large cities with more than 300,000 residents; midsize cities with populations between 150,000-300,000 people; and small cities with fewer than 150,000 people.

Palm Bay, Florida ranked as the No. 1 best housing market for first-time homebuyers regardless of city size. Meanwhile, the report determined Tampa is the best large city for first-time buyers.

Dallas ranked No. 84 in the report's "real estate market" category out of all 300 cities, and it unfortunately didn't earn stellar rankings in the quality of life (No. 253) or affordability (No. 249) categories.

On the bright side, Dallas has the second-highest rate of new home construction in the nation, which should help first-time homebuyers navigate the sea of listings on the market. Additionally, the median sale price for a Dallas home came out to $446,774 at the end of May, according to the Zillow Home Value Index.

In the overall rankings — regardless of city size — Dallas landed as the 237th best place for first-time homebuyers out of all 300 U.S. cities.

13 Dallas-Fort Worth cities ranked higher than Dallas in the overall list, including:

No. 73 – McKinney
No. 98 – Frisco
No. 118 – Grand Prairie
No. 125 – Denton
No. 130 – Allen
No. 132 – Plano
No. 143 – Fort Worth
No. 159 – Carrollton
No. 172 – Richardson
No. 176 – Garland
No. 186 – Arlington
No. 201 – Irving
No. 214 – Mesquite

According to the National Association of Realtors, only 24 percent of all home purchases in the nation were made by first-time buyers in 2024, down from 32 percent in 2023.

"Buying a home for the first time is a very stressful and difficult process, especially when housing prices are through the roof and interest rates have risen sharply in the past few years," said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. "The best cities for first-time home buyers not only are affordable both in terms of buying a house and living there afterward, but they also have a lot of housing choices as well as low crime rates and good schools."

Elsewhere in the Metroplex, Fort Worth was declared the second-best big Texas for first-time homebuyers, and the 27th best in the large U.S. cities category. Arlington ranked as the fifth best Texas city, and 38th best in the big city category.

Here's how other Texas housing markets fared in the report's ranking of the best large cities for first-time homebuyers:

No. 19 – Austin
No. 31 – El Paso
No. 37 – Corpus Christi
No. 39 – San Antonio
No. 56 – Houston

real estate housing market first time homebuyers wallethub dallas

Going Down

This Dallas suburb saw 5th biggest drop in home prices in U.S. in 2026

Photo courtesy of City of Plano

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Good news for potential Dallas-area homebuyers: Housing prices in Plano have come down nearly $30,000 since last year.

Typical home values in Plano have fallen 5.1 percent since February 2025, now standing at $501,564, down from $528,510.

The new housing study from SmartAsset analyzed home values across the 100 biggest metro areas using Zillow’s Home Value Index tool for single-family homes, condos, and co-ops. Home value data was sourced for the month of February in 2021, 2025, and 2026.

Plano is joined by Oakland, California (No. 1); Saint Petersburg (No. 2); Naples, Florida (No. 3); and Austin (No. 4) as the top five U.S. cities with the biggest one-year home price reductions in the U.S.

Housing prices in Dallas-Fort Worth have been on the decline since 2024, a separate study found, but SmartAsset said they're still a whopping 32.4 percent higher than they were in 2021. And compared to Plano's pre-pandemic housing market in 2019, prices have ballooned by 44.1 percent.

Here's how much cheaper housing prices are in other North Texas cities:

Dallas:

One year change: -3.79 percent
Typical home value in 2025: $317,550
Typical home value in 2026: $305,523

Arlington:

One year change: -3.41 percent
Typical home value in 2025: $318,649
Typical home value in 2026: $307,792

Fort Worth:

One year change: -3.08 percent
Typical home value in 2025: $305,236
Typical home value in 2026: $295,822

DFW homeowners are also entering the best time of the year to sell their houses, which could add a sudden sense of competitiveness for buyers.

Home prices elsewhere around the U.S. have seen varying changes, according to the report.

"Between 2025 and 2026, the typical home value in large U.S. cities actually declined by 1.04 percent, with values dropping in 70 percent of cities," the report's author wrote. "But the full range of changes from market to market ran the gamut from -9.1 percent to +5.01 percent, putting both hopeful buyers and homeowners in starkly different environments across the nation."

The top three U.S. cities where home prices increased the most since 2025 are Toledo, Ohio (No. 2); Lincoln, Nebraska (No. 2); and San Francisco (No. 3).

The 10 cities with the biggest one-year decreases in home values are:

No. 1 – Oakland, California
No. 2 – Saint Petersburg, Florida
No. 3 – Naples, Florida
No. 4 – Austin
No. 5 – Plano
No. 6 – Aurora, Colorado
No. 7 – Denver
No. 8 – Atlanta
No. 9 – Stockton, California
No. 10 – Tampa

housing prices housing market real estate smartasset reports plano dallas arlington fort worth