Keeping a roof over your head in North Texas has never cost so much before.
Apartment renters in Dallas-Fort Worth this year are paying almost 6% more than in first quarter 2016 — the highest cost ever for a local rental unit.
Average apartment rents in DFW are now $1,057 a month. That's slightly greater than the U.S. average of $1,032, according to a new report by Richardson-based RealPage.
Home purchase prices in North Texas were already at record highs last year. For the first two months of 2017, median house sales prices in DFW have increased another 14% compared to the same period last year.
DFW median home prices in February were $203,400 — higher than the $195,700 nationwide median price, according to the most recent data from Zillow.
The rising cost of housing in DFW and other Texas markets isn't just a burden for residents. The rapid rise in home and apartment costs is also causing concern for economists who track moves to the state and business expansion.
The increases in home costs are cutting into the Lone Star State's traditional cost of living advantages with relocating businesses, a recent report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas warns.
"Since the housing recovery began in 2011, Texas has seen unprecedented home price appreciation with home price gains here outpacing those nationally," Dallas Fed economist Laila Assanie said in the report. "This run-up in home prices is unusual for Texas, where construction tends to respond quickly to an increase in demand because of the state's vast supply of flat land and relatively few building regulations versus other large states."
The Fed research points out that while Texas' housing costs have jumped 34% in the five years ending with 2015, incomes in the same period rose only 14%.
"Declining housing affordability in the state has eroded the cost-of-living advantage, calling into question whether Texas can maintain its long-term economic and population growth that has often led the nation," Assanie said.
And Dallas is the least affordable home market area in Texas, according to the data from the Fed and the National Association of Home Builders.
