DFW Still Leads U.S. In Corporate Relocations, But Momentum Slows
Coming out of the pandemic, Dallas-Fort Worth was the No. 1 destination for corporate relocations by a wide margin, but in 2026, the competition is much fiercer, from within Texas and beyond.
Several internal and external factors have site selectors thinking twice about automatically recommending DFW to their top-tier clients, including rising regional home prices, questions about Dallas’ office market and the rapid ascension of competing national markets. At the same time, more companies are opting to establish regional hubs instead of fully relocating to the metro.
"DFW had record-shattering success a few years ago … but it’s difficult to sustain that type of success year after year after year," said John Boyd Jr., principal of Florida-based corporate site selection specialist The Boyd Co.
DFW has added more than 100 corporate headquarters since 2018, thanks to its business-friendly climate, growing population and land availability. The region now boasts more than 20 Fortune 500 companies, and its publicly traded firms have a combined market value of approximately $1.5T.
However, construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar Inc.’s move to Irving in 2022 was the last Fortune 500 company to relocate its headquarters to DFW.
Fierce Competition
DFW’s Fortune 500 relocation momentum has stalled just as markets like Miami, Charlotte and Phoenix have emerged as major contenders to DFW’s relocation throne. Those cities have their own growing talent pools, business-friendly environments and supportive infrastructures, according to a new CBRE report.
Without new corporate tenants coming into the market, the future of DFW’s office sector begins to look murky.
Corporate relocations and Y’all Street fueled the region’s trophy office market last year, but new trophy product is limited, and companies haven’t lined up to fill the 1M SF of office space in Whitacre Tower that will be left vacant when AT&T moves to Plano.
Intrastate relocations have become more common than full corporate moves in recent years, as have companies establishing regional headquarters in North Texas, according to Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber.
He cited Goldman Sachs’ 800K SF regional campus in Dallas and ScotiaBank’s 133K SF lease at Victory Commons One as examples of these regional hubs and what they bring to the metro.
Across the country, corporate headquarters relocations grew by more than 70% from 2024 to 2025, according to CBRE.
DFW nabbed 11 of the 164 headquarters relocations last year, the most of any city in the country. Seven companies also made intrastate moves to DFW, including some that consolidated operations to rightsize their footprints in the metro, according to CBRE.
The Miami metro was second in the nation, with eight new corporate headquarters in 2025, and it scored Palantir Technologies earlier this year. The Austin, Charlotte and New York metros were right behind Miami with seven new headquarters each.
Some of those cities also received more support than DFW from site selectors surveyed this year about the best cities for corporate headquarters projects. After topping Site Selector magazine's list of best cities for headquarters last year, Dallas fell to fourth this year, behind Nashville, Atlanta and Charlotte.
Rising home prices in DFW have also made a move to the metro less attractive for corporate executives, who no longer get as much bang for their buck. Median listing prices for homes in DFW have risen more than 40% since the start of the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
Winning Formula
With an abundance of undeveloped land, a pro-business climate and a diverse, educated workforce, Texas metros have been the biggest winners of corporate relocations for close to a decade. DFW gained the most new headquarters in the country during that time for those factors, as well as a high quality of life and affordability for businesses, JLL Executive Managing Director Bret Hefton said.
The region’s favorable tax climate, with no state or local income taxes, is always attractive to companies.
"That's a big factor when you're talking to companies that are relocating or considering relocation from New York and California," Hefton said.
He also praised the metro’s growth and central location in the U.S., which allows for easy transportation to anywhere in the country.
DFW’s nearly 124,000 new residents made up the second-largest population increase in the nation for the 12 months that ended last July, according to Census Bureau data released last month.
Booming markets in Collin, Denton and Kaufman counties continue to land major mixed-use projects and master-planned communities for those new residents because of their large swaths of undeveloped land.
The region’s growing population helps companies find workers when they relocate, as does its strong talent pipeline coming from a diverse range of educational institutions, said Mike Rosa, senior vice president of economic development at the Dallas Regional Chamber.
DFW is also unique for its diversified industries, which allow it to cast a wide net when trying to attract relocations.
“Whereas Houston is very energy-driven and even though we've become more financial services-focused, we're not nearly as dependent upon that industry as some other markets are with other industries,” Hefton said.
Looking Ahead
Many of the nation's high-growth markets have seen skyrocketing home prices and costs of living, so DFW isn't alone in struggling to score huge corporate relocations, Boyd said. Concerns about how artificial intelligence will affect real estate commitments in the years ahead have also prompted companies to favor intrastate moves and regional hub setups instead of full headquarters relocations.
Companies are expected to continue picking DFW for secondary headquarters and regional hubs, but there will also be more full corporate relocations to the metro.
"That's what these decisions are based on — it comes to 'where do we grow?'" Rosa said.
Hefton said DFW remains a popular destination nationwide for companies considering a move.
JLL has also engaged with several companies about possible relocations to DFW, but none have yet made full commitments. Still, Hefton said it is inevitable that DFW will see another major corporate relocation soon.
"There's a good chance that there will be an announcement in the next 12 months," Hefton said.
