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Booming North Dallas neighbor named best U.S. city for renters in 2025

McKinney is booming.

Facebook/Visit McKinney

A Dallas-area city is the place to be for renters: According to a report from apartment search website RentCafe, McKinney has earned the title as the No. 1 best U.S. city for renters in 2025.

Called the "Best Cities for Renters to Live in 2025," the report compares 150 U.S. cities based on 20 factors including quality of life, local economy, and cost of living and housing opportunities. Cities were chosen only if they had an "apartment stock" consisting of a minimum 10,000 units; any cities with lower apartment stocks were excluded.

McKinney dethroned Charleston, South Carolina, which had held the top spot for the last two years and has since slumped into the No. 7 spot for 2025. McKinney climbed three spots from 2024, when it came in as the fourth best city.

Rounding out the top five best U.S. cities for renters this year are Sarasota, Florida (No. 2), Atlanta, Georgia (No. 3), Austin (No. 4), and Huntsville, Alabama (No. 5).

McKinney received high praise for its affordability and quality of life; the report found that the city's cost of living is 2.5 percent lower than the national average. McKinney's nationally recognized low cost of living earned it the top spot in a separate Motley Fool Money report of the most affordable U.S. cities earlier in 2025.

RentCafe adds that McKinney's job growth, its excellent school and park systems, and its large share of luxury apartments in desirable locations make it "an ideal choice for renters seeking a small-town atmosphere without sacrificing the perks of a larger urban center."

live music mckinney McKinney is a Texas Music Friendly Community. Photo courtesy of Visit McKinney

"Altogether, McKinney strikes the perfect balance between affordability and suburban comfort, thereby earning its place as the best city for renters in 2025," the report's author wrote.

The average size of a McKinney apartment spans 948 square feet, which the report says is the second-largest average apartment size in Texas. San Marcos, a city between Austin and San Antonio, outranks McKinney in that category with an average apartment size of 988 square feet.

Other top Dallas-Fort Worth cities for renters
Most Dallas-Fort Worth cities made slight improvements in the rankings since last year.

After flopping out of the top five in 2024, Plano moved up six spots and is now the 11th best U.S. city for renters in 2025. But its high cost of living — nearly 10 percent higher than the national average — means Plano still has work to do to regain a top spot among the best places for renters to live.

Denton moved up five spots into No. 33 after previously ranking as 38th a year ago. Fort Worth now claims the No. 38 spot in a big jump from its former rank of No. 53 in 2024.

Dallas remains as the 57th best city for renters for the second consecutive year.

Elsewhere in Texas
Austin's northern suburb Round Rock remained in the top 10 this year, coming in as the 8th best city for renters.

Here's how other Texas cities stacked up among the top 100 in RentCafe's report:

No. 24 – Conroe (up from No. 31 last year)
No. 27 – San Marcos (up from No. 55 last year)
No. 44 – San Antonio (up from No. 65 last year)
No. 58 – Lubbock (unchanged from 2024)
No. 63 – Midland (down from No. 52 last year)
No. 69 – Amarillo (up from No. 85 last year)
No. 70 – Houston (up from No. 71 last year)
No. 88 – Waco (up from No. 91 last year)

mckinney dallas suburbs rentcafe rent reports

not too shabby

Dallas ranks No. 15 nationwide on new affordability and housing report

Reunion Tower

Downtown Dallas skyline, all lit up.

A new national real estate report card has given Dallas-Fort Worth a passing grade for housing demand and affordability.

Realtor.com's first-ever Metro Affordability & Homebuilding Report Card compared the 100 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. based on two scores that measured the most important factors for potential home buyers: an "Affordability Components" score that examined the current affordability of housing for residents, and a "Homebuilding Components" score that analyzed the rate of new home construction to meet future demand. Both scores were then used to calculate the final score and assigned a letter grade.

Only 10 total U.S. metros, including Houston (No. 4) and Austin (No. 6), received grades in the "A" range (A+, A, A- ) representing the most balanced locales for "favorable current affordability conditions and healthy future inventory growth to sustain them."

"Homebuilding and affordability are inseparable, and if we want to improve affordability in a lasting way, we need to build more homes," said Realtor.com chief economist Danielle Hale. "The metros at the top of these rankings show that buyers benefit most when communities pair homes that are attainable for today's local earners with enough new construction to support tomorrow's demand."

Only two metros earned "A+" grades with a total score of 77.5 or higher: De Moines-West DeMoines, Idaho (83.4 points) and Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina (82.8 points).

Dallas-Fort Worth earned a "B+" overall with a total score of 67.9 points, an "Affordability Components" score of 54.5 points, and a "Homebuying Components" score of 81.3 points. The DFW Metroplex also ranks 15th in the national ranking of the best metros for affordability and housing.

Five more U.S. metros earned the same rating: Augusta-Richmond County, Georgia-South Carolina; Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Madison, Wisconsin; Wichita, Kansas; and Louisville, Kentucky-Indiana.

Realtor.com's report said the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metro has a median household income of $88,783, and home listings have a median price of $426,446. The report's findings also show that newly built homes in the region cost 8.9 percent more than existing homes on the market.

DFW has a 1.76 housing permit-to population ratio, meaning the metro permits 76 percent more new homes than what would be considered typical based on its population and national average construction levels.

DFW's "Realtors Affordability Score," or the share of for-sale inventory affordable to households at different income levels, is 0.639, or slightly lower than the national average of 0.675.

Housing market grades across other Texas metros
Houston and Austin were the only two Texas metros to earn a grade in the "A" range.

Houston outperformed every Texas metro for housing and affordability with its solid "A" rating. Newly built homes in the Houston area cost about 7 percent more than existing homes on the market, and the metro has a 1.88 housing permit-to population ratio.

Austin earned an "A-" with a combined score of 72.5 points. Unlike many other U.S. metros, newly built homes in the Austin area are actually more affordable than existing homes on the market. Austin has a negative new construction premium, where new build homes are 6 percent cheaper than existing ones.

The Austin metro also has a permit-to-population ratio of 2.37. Combined with the negative new construction premium, these factors signal that "builders are delivering homes at a rate well above the metro's population share — and at prices slightly below existing homes."

This is a snapshot of the factors that impacted Austin's grade:

Realtors Affordability Score: 0.639
Median listing price: $501,200
Median household income: $102,412

Elsewhere in Texas, San Antonio-New Braunfels and McAllen-Edinburg-Mission both earned "C+" ratings, while El Paso's housing market performance was only worthy of a "D" grade.

The top 10 U.S. metros with the highest-performing housing markets are:

No. 1 – De Moines-West Demoines, Idaho (A+)
No. 2 – Ralgieh-Cary, North Carolina (A+)
No. 3 – Columbia, South Carolina (A)
No. 4 – Houston, Texas (A)
No. 5 – Indianapolis, Indiana (A)
No. 6 – Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas (A-)
No. 7 – Jacksonville, Florida (A-)
No. 8 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma (A-)
No. 9 – Palm Bay-Melbourne, Florida (A-)
No. 10 – Columbus, Ohio (A-)

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