DFW Apartment Rents Rose Slightly During The Pandemic

Nearly a year after the coronavirus pandemic broke out, challenging the already thriving multifamily asset class in Dallas-Fort Worth, apartment landlords are having no trouble achieving rents in line with pre-pandemic levels. 

In fact, rents across DFW mostly edged up or held steady over the past 11 months, according to data from RENTCafé.

The average Dallas apartment rent rose 0.8% from January 2020 to January 2021, coming in last month at $1,256 — just under the national average of $1,392. 

DFW cities to the west of Dallas fared the best, with their monthly rents shooting up nearly 5% year-over-year.

Fort Worth's average rent reached $1,182 last month, up 4.8% from January 2020, while Arlington's average rent grew 4.5% year-over-year, reaching $1,092 in January 2021, RENTCafé said. 

The most expensive rent in the metroplex was found in Flower Mound, where renters last month paid $1,594 on average.

The largest price drop occurred in Addison, with the average rent year-over-year falling 1.6% to $1,379 last month. 

The only DFW cities with rents under $1K are located well outside DFW's urban core and include Greenville (with $878 per month rents), Balch Springs ($916 per month) and Lancaster ($973 per month). 

DFW rents remained steady in 2020 as more migrating Americans moved to Texas in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.

A survey from U-Haul shows Texas ranked second, behind Tennessee, for having the most U-Haul migrations to the state last year. U-Haul comes up with its migration data by counting the number of one-way U-Haul border crossings over state lines and comparing it to one-way moves-outs in the same states.