Joe Pappalardo
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Even before the current housing crisis hit, the Dallas-Fort Worth area wasn’t producing nearly enough homes, according to a new study about housing underproduction in major metropolitan areas across the country.
Conducted by the D.C.-based nonprofit research group Up for Growth, the study examines the housing shortage in some 309 “metropolitan statistical areas” and more than 500 non-metro areas around the U.S. In 2019, that study finds, Dallas-Fort Worth already didn’t build enough homes – to the tune of 85,226 residential units.
Up for Growth ranked Dallas-Fort Worth 11th on the list of metropolitan areas not producing enough homes. California’s Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim area earned the No. 1 slot for underproduction, falling short by more than 388,000 homes.
Dallas-Fort Worth ranked the worst for underproduction in Texas, while Houston-The Woodlands-Sugarland clocked in at No. 15, and San Antonio-New Braunfels came next at No. 18.
“Forty-seven states and Washington, D.C., saw the underproduction of homes rise, and six states that did not have underproduction in 2012 now do,” the study notes.
“Homebuilders in high growth places like Texas and Florida have seen spikes in their underproduction far in excess of California.” – Up for Growth
The report also noted that California, Texas and Florida have “the highest housing underproduction,” tallying a combined shortage of 1.6 million units. The report explains, “Homebuilders in high growth places like Texas and Florida have seen spikes in their underproduction far in excess of California.”
In the past, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has pitched Texas as the most business-friendly state to which people could relocate, taking jabs at California for its “high taxes, burdensome regulations, & socialistic agenda” in a tweet in January 2020.
But the Up for Growth study’s authors say, “Texas pitches itself as the place to live and do business for people wanting to leave California, but despite its impressive economic growth, it has failed to build over 320,000 units of housing.”
In the meantime, the housing crisis in Texas, including in Dallas-Fort Worth, is only getting worse. Since the pandemic hit in early 2020, rent prices in Dallas have risen by more than 22%, according to a recent analysis by Rent List. For those looking to purchase a home in Dallas, prices have similarly skyrocketed.
Buying a home has been further complicated by the influx of institutional buyers in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, a trend some advocates say is already contributing to homelessness in the region.
Of all homes sold in Dallas County last year, some 43% were bought by institutional investors, such as private companies and hedge funds. In Tarrant County, that number sat at 54% in 2021.
