Prices are rising in Dallas and Lake Highlands housing markets. With the new year’s arrival, prices may have skyrocketed in the home buying market, but the increase was much lower in the rental market for both apartments and houses.
On the side of affordable housing, there are yet to be any new affordable housing developments announced for our neighborhood, but we’ll see.
Since the shutdown of City of Refuge plans on the site of 12000 Greenville Ave., talk of new affordable housing developments and urban communities sort of rolled to a stop.
The nearest affordable housing complex to Lake Highlands, however, was the St. Jude Center at Park Central, which opened in 2020. It was initially a COVID-19 isolation and homeless housing unit before turning into transitional housing for the homeless and those at risk of becoming homeless.
The City of Dallas Department of Housing and Neighborhood Revitalization also updated and adopted its current Comprehensive Housing Policy in October to address mixed-income housing; this time the target is on racial equity.
In the City of Dallas as a whole, work toward more affordable housing has been embarrassing, especially after an audit into the Comprehensive Housing Policy was made public in December. The goals barely address the racial aspect of affordable housing.
In it, policy goals are listed as follows:
- Create and maintain available and affordable housing throughout Dallas
- Promote greater fair housing choices
- Overcome patterns of segregation and concentrations of poverty through incentives and requirements
There were several matters of concern in the policy’s feasibility that were pointed out during a Dec. 14 Housing and Homelessness Solutions committee presentation.
One issue cited in an analysis of the audit is that there’s “insufficient funding to achieve affordable housing production targets and advance equity in affordable housing access,” in comparison to other metropolitan cities in the state and country.
Renters make up 44% of households in Lake Highlands, and homeowners make up the other 56% of the housing market, according to rental locator site Zumper.
As for rent affordability in Lake Highlands’ housing market — this includes apartments and houses — the average rent price is $1,500. The latest data for renters in the area is from RentHub and compares February 2021 numbers to those from February 2022.
At 6.1% growth, northwest Lake Highlands in 75243 ZIP code has the lowest change in average rent. It is $440 less than the neighborhood average at $1,060. The southernmost areas of the neighborhood have seen more significant hikes, with 17.9% and 16.6% change in 75231 and 75238 ZIP codes, respectively.
In the past year, rent has increased by 16.2% in Lake Highlands. In the surrounding areas, Garland and Richardson, the average increase has been even steeper. In Garland alone, rent prices jumped from between 30.4% and 42.5% compared to what they were at the end of 2020. There, prices tend to be higher than average in this area with median rent at $1,780 and $1,425.
Going into Richardson, prices have risen by 6.9% and 22.5% in 75081 and 75044 ZIP codes, respectively.
Sale to listing price in Lake Highlands, however, is another story. In the 75218, 75238 and 75243 ZIP codes, buyers pay less than 1% under the listing price, rather than over. That percent is just over 1% in the 75231 ZIP code.
Lake Highlands’ housing market is considered somewhat competitive with “hot homes” leaving the market after around 12 days and going 4% above asking price, according to Redfin.
In Dallas, rent continues to increase, but it’s still lower than the national average. In a report by Apartmentlist, there has been a 15.8% spike since 2021. In comparison, the national average rent change is 17.8% since 2020.
Dallas suburbs tend to have higher rental rates than the center of Dallas, according to the same report. For example, median rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $1,360 in Dallas and $1,770 in Richardson. For scale, that price is even higher in Plano, where the average is $1,870.
On a month-to-month basis, the average change isn’t much but shows up significantly, as the previous numbers show, over a year’s time. In Dallas, the growth change is almost 1% in a month. That percentage drops in Richardson with a less than 1% change.
By comparison, here’s what average two-bedroom rent prices look like in other major cities across the country, including Austin, Houston and San Antonio. Dallas, San Antonio and Houston have seen similar rent growth by year with an average of 10% – 15% increase.
Rental trends graph, via Apartment List
