Presence of REITs in Dallas-Fort Worth Impacts Market’s Affordability Ranking, Study Finds

An interesting statistic emerged from another study about the cost of rent affordability in the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington market.

Lawn Love, a San Diego-based lawn-care marketplace website, commissioned the study and measured 185 rental markets. This market didn’t show any significant surprises in its rankings — 44th most expensive, 50th in rent prices, and 124th in rent affordability.

But Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington ranked fifth in cost inflators, which in this dataset is the number of real estate investment trusts and average renters insurance premium.

Lawn Love added the REIT factor, citing the trend of real estate companies flipping foreclosed houses to rent at exorbitant rates.

Regarding REITs, Dallas’ attraction to investment buyers has resulted in city leaders considering policies to slow the interest, which some believe is driving up prices for homes. It’s also become a topic of national concern.

Ty Lee, the founder of Dallas REIT startup Common Dwelling, told CandysDirt.com in May that renters could be the sector impacted, explaining that in a rising interest rate environment, people need homes but can’t afford available homes.

“Limiting investor activity would remove a much-needed product for renters,” he said. “Families need schools and space and sometimes an apartment doesn’t work for them.”

The New York-Newark-Jersey City market was rated the most expensive metro area based on high rental costs and abundant REITs. Half of the top 10 are in California, such as San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad (No. 5) and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim (No. 6). Napa (No. 9) has the second-highest overall average monthly rent at $2,495.

What is Lawn Love: The San Diego-based company provides a marketplace for the lawn care industry. The company’s stated goal is “build the largest high-tech lawn care marketplace on planet earth.”

Report review: The report has a sortable table and a dynamic chart to find the nation’s most expensive metro areas to rent. Lawn Love gathered publicly available data on rent prices, rent affordability, and cost inflators. Lawn Love then calculated the weighted scores and averaged the scores for each metro across all categories. It’s definitely a four-bunny rabbit hole. Hop on in. 🐇 🐇 🐇 🐇