Rabbit-Hole Alert! Separate Apartment-Pricing Studies Say a Lot About the Dallas Market

Two San Francisco-based apartment rental services are confirming what we already knew — rent in Dallas and the Dallas area is costing more each month. And if anyone knows outlandish rent, folks in San Francisco do.

Apartment-dwellers in Dallas are paying 2 percent more month-over-month in June and 17 percent year-over-year, according to the latest report from Apartment List.

Zumper’s Dallas Metro Report finds the city as the sixth-most expensive rental market among 13 cities in the Dallas area. Rent for a one-bedroom Dallas apartment has risen 16 percent year-over-year and 0.7 percent month-over-month.

The annual increase outpaces inflation. In a year-over-year comparison that ended in May, inflation is up 8.6 percent, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition, rising mortgage rates are sidelining potential homebuyers. Going forward, that could bring more competition for rentals amid a multifamily market that is already low on inventory.

Apartment List

The median rent in Dallas is $1,218 for a one-bedroom apartment and $1,455 for a two-bedroom apartment, according to the Dallas-specific part of the report. The city’s rents have been increasing for 19 consecutive months.

Renters will find more reasonable rates than most comparable cities. San Francisco, for one, has a median 2BR rent of $2,636.

Rent is also up throughout the region. Here are more data points:

• McKinney has seen the fastest rent growth in the area with a year-over-year increase of 20.1 percent.
• Plano has the most expensive rent in the Dallas area with a two-bedroom median of $1,964.
• Arlington has the least expensive rent in the Dallas metro with a two-bedroom median of $1,319.

Elsewhere, rents have grown by 17.4 percent in Austin, 13.8 percent in San Antonio, and 9.2 percent in Houston.

Apartment List: Talk about a deep rabbit hole. Apartment List has exhaustive data on rent prices in most, if not all, of the cities in D-FW. Then, the national data includes dynamic graphics and more data. Apartment List gets its data from private listing sites, and the Census Bureau, among others. It’s a five-bunny rating. 🐇🐇🐇🐇🐇

Zumper

In Zumper’s study, Richardson ranks as the city with the highest 1BR rent at 1,600. Frisco is ranked second with $1,590 and Plano third at $1,550. Arlington ($1,100) and Denton ($1,090) have the lowest 1B rent, both lower than the state median of $1,135 in June.

Dallas Metro Area

Year over year, Grand Prairie saw the largest increase in 1BR rent (29.2 percent). Month-over-month, Carrollton, Lewisville, and Grand Prairie were up 6.2 percent.

Zumper: The nice thing about Zumper’s data is it’s D-FW-specific. Zumper analyzes active listings that hit the market last month. Listings are then aggregated by city to calculate median asking rents. 🐇🐇🐇