Dallas Lags Behind Other Texas Markets in Affordable Housing Construction

This brings us no pleasure to point out, but it seems not everyone thinks as highly of Dallas as we do. Sure, we have some quibbles with certain things about living here, but for the most part, we think Big D is the best. But a new RentCafe survey says Dallas is way behind a couple of other major Lone Star cities in a category that has rightfully become a heated topic of conversation: affordable housing. 

It’s not that Dallas is a terrible market for seeing new, affordable apartments built over the five-year span between 2019-2024; in fact, it’s among the top 20 U.S. cities with the fastest growth in affordable apartment construction and the total overall amount of new affordable apartments. But there’s no denying it hurts to see Dallas way below San Antonio and Austin on this specific stat. 

One can surmise from the latest Dallas city bond package that city leaders acknowledge there’s a continuing affordable housing problem, but that the people making decisions about where bond money goes have decided the city isn’t in the homebuilding business. Earlier this month, the Observer broke down a report that says, although housing costs have begun to decrease, rent prices for the city’s lowest-income renters have not followed suit. 

RentCafe arrived at its findings by adhering to a very specific definition of affordability across 146 markets. In this case, “fully affordable” referred to residential buildings in which all units are income-restricted, meaning rents do not exceed 30% of the Area Median Income, and excludes partially affordable developments, such as properties that include a mix of income-restricted and market-rate units in the same complex. 

Dallas ranked 15th overall for new affordable apartments from 2019-2024, with RentCafe noting that 5,317 apartments fit its definition of “fully affordable.” But that amount, although admirable, represents only a little over 5% of the apartments built during that same period, meaning that, out of the top 20 on RentCafe’s list, Big D was No. 20 in share of affordable apartments built in that five-year span. 

But on the brighter side of the survey for our fair burg, Dallas ranked No. 15 among markets experiencing the fastest growth in affordable apartment construction. 

But what about those other Texas cities we like to think we’re better than? Bad news, unless you’re looking for an affordable apartment in Austin or San Antonio. 

Austin is ranked third in the survey for most affordable apartments built between 2019-2024, with 13,343, for a whopping five-year increase of more than 142%. San Antonio ranked No. 9 for the most new affordable apartments, with 9,015. The Alamo City was tops in the country, however, in the five-year increase column, notching an enviable 222.54%.