D-FW has led the nation in building, but it isn’t enough. Incomes haven’t kept pace with home prices. Rents are well above pre-COVID levels
for sale or rent in the Dallas metro area in 2022 was 48,150, according to a recent analysis by real estate website Zillow.Nationwide, Zillow estimates the housing shortage grew to 4.5 million homes in 2022, up from 4.3 million homes. And the situation worsened despite a pandemic construction boom. Between 2010 and 2022, the metro area added 661,000 homes and apartments, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.. Area residents need to make more than $116,000 to buy a home, according to a June study from Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies. The region’s median household income was nearly $83,000 in 2022, according to the Census Bureau.
The end result is consumers have adjusted their expectations. The 2,000-square-foot, four-bedroom “starter home” has now become a three-bedroom house at 1,600 square feet, Langridge said.Larger builders have adopted this approach, too. D.R. Horton is building smaller homes.