SmartAsset Study Once Again Has Good News for Fort Worth Renters

Fort Worth renters who are saving to become homeowners will require an estimated 1.46 years to scrape up a 10 percent downpayment and 2.69 years to make a 20 percent downpayment.

Those are nation-leading calculations in SmartAsset’s 2021 study on homeownership. SmartAsset, a personal finance technology company, crunched the numbers to determine how long it takes to save for the upfront costs of a home (down payment and closing costs) in the nation’s 15 largest cities. Columbus switched spots with Fort Worth in this year’s study.

Among the largest 15 cities, Dallas ranked seventh, San Antonio third, Houston fifth, and Austin 10th.

In the category of the 100 largest cities, Laredo ranked first in estimated years to homeownership with 2.10 years. El Paso was seventh and Corpus Christi was ninth. Garland was tied with Tulsa for 15th and Fort Worth was 17th among the top 100.

The pandemic hasn’t seemed to impact the homeowners’ rate, nor does the limited inventory of available homes. Historic-low interest rates haven’t hurt. Also, homeowners have been able to take advantage of commercial and state, and local government grants for downpayment assistance.

Citing Census data, SmartAsset says the homeownership rate hit 67.9 percent in the second quarter of 202, up from 64.1 percent in 2019. In the second quarter of 2021, the homeownership rate reached 65.4 percent, slightly higher than pre-COVID-19 rates.

SmartAsset’s data and methodology are available here.