Dallas is among the 10 best cities in the country for young people to buy a home, according to a new National Association of Realtors report. "Buying a home," if you're under 35, is an old-timey activity practiced mostly by your parents and grandparents, sort of like using a rotary phone or having a savings account.
The report uses job numbers and housing prices to determine where young people might actually be able to buy something. It surveyed 100 cities across the country and focused on specific data encompassing the 25 to 34 age group. The report excluded 18- to 25-year-olds who are typically less likely to buy homes, owing to crushing student debt and bar tabs. Austin joined Denver, two cities in Utah and five other cities on the list.
"There's no state income tax in Texas, and there are job prospects in energy and industry. Both Dallas and Austin have great weather, if you like warm weather," says Adam DeSanctis, a spokesman for the NAR. "Millennials will be able to buy their first homes sooner than if they were in San Francisco or New York."
That's not to say that the Texas housing market doesn't have its flaws. Home buyers in this state pay higher closing costs than any other state in the country. But even with all the miscellaneous fees attached to the Texas home-buying process, prices are still considerably cheaper than they are in most other states.
The NAR also measured the likelihood that millennials would be able to find jobs in the cities where home prices were good, studying unemployment rates and job growth. The goal of the study was to highlight cities that could see a spike in first-time homebuyers.
"The unemployment rate in Dallas was 5.5 percent, so Dallas compared to Washington, D.C. But home prices are lower in lower in Dallas, and are very high here in Washington, D.C.," DeSanctis says. "There are other areas that have lower unemployment rates, but the home prices are a lot higher."
In a statement, Lawrence Yun of the NAR also pointed out increasingly limited job prospects, student debt, flat wage growth and tight credit conditions for reasons why millennials are being priced out of cities like New York and San Francisco. So the lesson is, it really sucks financially to be a millennial, so they might as well all move to Texas. We'll be waiting with open arms and cheap houses.