A mother living in the Stonebridge area of McKinney, McMahan said she never received the initial email notice from the management company. She found out several days later when the management company reached her by phone, and she now has until Sept. 8 to vacate.
To make matters more challenging, she'll likely have to pay higher rent wherever she goes. At her current place, she pays $1,750 a month. Looking for a new spot, she has found rentals that go for $2,300–2,400. "There isn't anywhere to go," she said.
It's a problem many are grappling with across Dallas-Fort Worth, where rent prices continue to climb even as real estate prices gradually dip.
According to a recent study published by Rent.com, the average rental cost of a one-bedroom apartment in Dallas was $1,804 in July. That marks a 16.2% year-over-year increase compared to July 2021.
In some suburbs, the surge has been even greater. According to data on the rental platform Zumper, nearly every city in DFW has seen a spike. In an Aug. 1 report, Zumper noted that Grand Prairie had seen a 26.4% increase in average rental rates when compared with August 2021, while average rental prices in Irving, Denton, Frisco, Carrollton and Lewisville had all grown by more than 20% over the last year.
Many renters simply can't keep up.
Sandy Rollins, executive director of the Texas Tenants' Union, speaks with people like McMahan all the time. Many of those who reach out to Rollins can't find a place for less than $2,000 a month, she said, and when factoring in deposits, the amount they have to hand over up front can grow yet higher.
“It’s already a ridiculously short notice for somebody who’s got kids enrolled in school,” Rollins said of McMahan. “For a human in this housing market right now, 30 days is not enough time, even if you have deep pockets.”
Ian Mattingly, one of the owners and operators of the Apartment Association of Greater Dallas, described the current housing market as complex.
“The simplest version of the answer is that it is supply and demand,” he said. “We are in a market that is still underserved by housing … and we have consistently for the past decade underbuilt.”
Rental property owners, Mattingly said, must raise rents to keep up with inflation. On top of that, property taxes have risen, and zoning regulations are restricting where certain types of homes can be built. Even before the current crisis, in 2019, Dallas-Fort Worth ranked 11th in metropolitan areas not producing enough homes to keep up with demand, according to a recent study by the D.C.-based nonprofit Up for Growth."There isn't anywhere to go." – Beajae McMahan
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“If we’re moving rents significantly, it’s because we’re trying to strike that balance between growing revenue enough just to keep pace with the growth in our expenses,” he said.
Meanwhile, after soaring throughout the pandemic, housing prices have started to drop around DFW. In July, the median home price in the region sunk by 3% when compared with June, according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University and North Texas Real Estate Information Systems.
But without enough rental properties to meet demand, renters are likely to keep feeling the squeeze.
Rollins knows firsthand about how these issues are making it tougher for tenants, including many senior citizens, who are having to deal with these problems. She described the "heartbreaking calls" she receives regularly.
“There’s not too many days that go by when I am on the phone that I’m not talking to a retiree being priced out,” she said.
