Apartment Rental Prices Continue Rapid Rise in North Texas, U.S.

Finding a place to rent in North Texas is getting more expensive, and it’s hard to imagine the costs are going to ease anytime soon.

Soaring housing costs aren’t helping.

Thousands of new high-priced rental units are opening. Incomes are up percent above pre-COVID highs, according to the latest data from RealPage.

The increases can be attributed to the current U.S. inflation rate of 7.5 percent, the biggest surge in 40 years.

“Across the country, rent growth continues to be driven by a combination of big growth in renter wages, big demand for housing, and ultra-low availability,” RealPage analysts said in the latest report.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a report last month projecting rents will continue to rise by about 10 percent in 2022.

Increasing rental costs are nothing new, of course. They’ve been rapidly going up for the past year. Nationally, Redfin reported that average rents rose 14 percent last year, to $1,877.

Redfin reported a 29 percent increase in Dallas and Fort Worth. Austin is first again in another housing statistic, but not one anyone would want. Austin led the U.S. in fastest-rising rents with an annual 40 percent increase.

Eleven million households, or 25 percent of renters, spend more than half of their monthly income on rent, according to an analysis of 2018 census data by Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies.

Despite the increases, RealPage reports that only 2.4 percent of apartments were empty, an all-time low. In the survey of 150 U.S. apartment markets, 146 of the metro areas had vacancy rates of less than 4 percent.

According to RealPage, Dallas-area average rents soared 18.7 percent and Fort Worth-area rents were 16 percent higher than the previous year.

Zumper drills down further with its monthly Dallas Metro Area Report, an analysis of active listings across 14 North Texas cities.

In its report, Frisco ranked as the most expensive city for a one-bedroom apartment with a rent of $1,580, just ahead of Richardson at $1,550. Carrollton had the biggest spike with a 26.3 percent increase year over year.

For the good news: Denton ranked as the most affordable city with a 1BR priced at $1,000.