The North Texas rental market is on fire, with properties springing up, people flocking to the city for corporate relocations and builders working to keep pace with demand.
According to an article from WFAA, apartment rent reached an all-time high last year, with rents rising 4.9% in 2014 and the average monthly rent for an apartment in Dallas-Fort Worth surging to $919.
"Annual increases above 4% are rare in this market," said Greg Willett, an MPF Research vice president. "Because we're such a construction hot spot, the flow of new product moving through initial lease-up normally holds rent growth below the national norm."
“Locally, however, renters were leasing up units almost as fast as they came on the market, Willett said. Renters leased 15,226 units during 2014, when 15,575 units were completed, making North Texas the strongest market nationwide,” the article said.
For homeownership, buyer traffic slipped in December, with the buyer traffic index dropping to 22 from 33 in November, Credit Suisse’s December survey of real estate agents reported. However, thanks to corporate relocations there has been some activity seen at middle price points.
One of the most notable relocations was Toyota Motor Company’s, which announced in April that it was moving from its California headquarters to North Dallas.
The new supply total was the country's second biggest, behind the 18,955 apartments brought to market in Washington, D.C., the article said based on data from MPF Research. Year-end occupancy across the North Texas market was 94.7%, which is a 13-year peak.
And the news goes beyond renting, with Texas, as a whole, posting strong growth in luxury home sales.
“The attributes that have driven growth in Texas’ real estate market in recent years – job growth and population growth – are also driving the luxury market,” said Scott Kesner, chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors. “We’re seeing more demand for luxury properties from Texans whose incomes are increasing, enabling them to ‘move up,’ and from those moving to our state from those moving to our state from elsewhere in the country.”
