high rise dominance

Dallas tops the U.S. charts for most new apartments built since 2020

Views from Dallas apartments don't get prettier than this.

Photo courtesy of Simpson Property Group

Shiny new apartment complexes are popping up everywhere around the country, but no other city can claim quite as many as Dallas.

Dallas-Fort Worth, in fact, has had more new apartments constructed since the beginning of the "pandemic building boom" in 2020 than any other U.S. metro area, according to a new study by apartment rental marketplace RentCafe.

Highest construction rate from 2020 to 2022
The construction analysis revealed 76,660 new apartment units opened in DFW between 2020 and 2022. Dallas' numbers far outshine one of the biggest renter metros in the country - New York City (No. 2) - by nearly 10,600 units.

"The booming job market in the Metroplex (supported by the industrial and tech sectors) fueled this construction spree," the report's author said.

Broken down by city, Dallas constructed 13,741 new apartment units between 2020 and 2022, while Fort Worth built the second highest number of new apartments: 9,672. McKinney built 2,586 new units within the same time frame, and Farmers Branch made up 3,140 new apartment units.

Dallas is followed less closely by its Texas neighbors Houston (No. 3) and Austin (No. 4), which only developed 53,741 and 45,051 new apartment units, respectively, within the same period. Miami rounds out the top five with 42,960 new units built between 2020 and 2022.

The remaining top 10 metros that completed the most new apartments between 2020 and 2022 are:

No. 6 – Washington, D.C. (42,723 units)
No. 7 – Los Angeles, California (39,842 units)
No. 8 – Atlanta, Georgia (39,467 units)
No. 9 – Seattle, Washington (36,952 units)
No. 10 – Twin Cities, Minnesota (31,662 units)

New apartments to meet rising demand in 2023
Dallas-Fort Worth may have topped the charts for new apartments built during the pandemic, but it has fallen slightly in completed units built thus far in 2023. The study found that developers are set to build 23,659 new rental units by the end of December, which is nearly 10,000 fewer than New York, which reclaimed the No. 1 spot in 2023.

Demand for more housing is still at an all-time high in the Metroplex, as the North Texas region gained more residents than any other American metro between 2021 and 2022, the report says. Census data estimates nearly 170,400 new residents arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth at that time, bringing the population total to 7.9 million. That's quite the population boom, which only continues to grow bigger and bigger.

"[Dallas' construction rate is] still not enough to meet the soaring demand for apartments throughout the metro, especially as America’s new boomtown is facing a severe shortage of housing units," the report says. "And, more and more people are expected to relocate to this thriving area in the coming years as businesses continue to expand."

The top 10 metros predicted to build the most new apartments in 2023 are:

No. 1 – New York City, New York (33,001 units)
No. 2 – Dallas, Texas (23,659 units)
No. 3 – Austin, Texas (23,434 units)
No. 4 – Miami, Florida (20,904 units)
No. 5 – Atlanta, Georgia (18,408 units)
No. 6 – Phoenix, Arizona (14,629 units)
No. 7 – Los Angeles, California (14,087 units)
No. 8 – Houston, Texas (13,637 units)
No. 9 – Washington, D.C. (13,189 units)
No. 10 – Denver, Colorado (12,581 units)

The full report can be found on rentcafe.com.

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hi neighbor!

Dallas keeps movers on speed dial as No. 2 city for recent moves, says report

More millennials are moving to Austin than Dallas, a new report says.

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Dallas is shifting as people move into the city and around it. A new population analysis by online loan marketplace LendingTree has named Dallas the No. 2 metro for recent movers.

The study used population data from a 2021 U.S. Census Bureau survey to determine householders and renters who moved to their current home in 2019 or later. It reflects people moving around Dallas as well as moving into it, so it's not just new residents being counted.

About 35 percent of combined homeowners and renters living in their current Dallas homes moved there within the three-year scope of the study. For homeowners, that's about 19 percent, compared to about 59 percent of renters.

The three-year median home value appreciation rate in Dallas was 16.15 percent, the study says, echoing similar reports that the city remains one of the top housing markets for growth.

But other reports that are not looking at such longterm averages are showing that the market seems to be stabilizing recently. In August of 2023, Zillow reported home prices in Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington dropped 1.4 percent from the previous year to $309,340.

Rent appreciation was not as dramatic, but renters are surely feeling it regardless. The data shows the three-year median gross rent appreciation rate was 8.49 percent.

Renters are much more likely than homeowners to move due to multiple factors: personal circumstances, rising rent prices, landlords who want to change their lease terms, and many others.

"While some regulations protect renters and make it harder for landlords to force them out of their homes, these protections aren’t always robust," the study says. "Because of this, renters can more frequently find themselves in situations where they’re forced to move, even if they like their current home or are strapped for cash."

Dallas fell right behind Austin, which saw nearly 39 percent of homeowners and renters moving between 2019 and 2021. Houston was the only other Texas city to make the top 10, ranking No. 7 with nearly 34 percent of homeowners and renters moving within the same time frame.

The U.S. metros with the largest shares of homeowners and renters who moved in 2019 or later are:

No. 1 – Austin, Texas (38.82 percent)
No. 2 – Dallas, Texas (34.91 percent)
No. 3 – Las Vegas, Nevada (34.81 percent)
No. 4 – Denver, Colorado (34.71 percent)
No. 5 – Orlando, Florida (34.55 percent)
No. 6 – Phoenix, Arizona (34.03 percent)
No. 7 – Houston, Texas (33.50 percent)
No. 8 – Jacksonville, Florida (33.27 percent)
No. 9 – Nashville, Tennessee (33.14 percent)
No. 10 – Salt Lake City, Utah (32.94 percent)

The full report can be found on lendingtree.com.

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