Home-buying power shrinks in Dallas-Fort Worth

The change in buying power, calculated by our data viz team, is a percent change for the 1970 house price/annual income ratio to the present. Data: RealtyHop; Chart: Axios Visuals

Fort Worth residents' home buying power has decreased the most out of major Texas cities in the past 50 years, per an Axios analysis of a RealtyHop study .

Why it matters: Housing inventory is finally starting to increase in Dallas-Fort Worth after years of minimal buying options.

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State of play: In February 2022, there were slightly more than 4,000 active listings in the metro. In April of this year, there were about 18,500 listings, per Realtor.com data compiled by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

Yes, but: Homes are still drastically more expensive than before the pandemic, with a 44% increase in the Dallas area.

Case in point: The average sales price for a D-FW house rose 3% from April 2023 to this year, reaching $505,446.

• The median home price rose 1.5% year-over-year to $405,000, per the latest report from the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University

Context: Home buying power in Fort Worth decreased 58% from 1970 to 2022, per the Axios analysis.

• In Dallas, home buying power dropped almost 56%.
• Home buying power is the ratio of annual income versus the average house price in 1970 (when boomers started buying starter homes) compared to 2022.

By the numbers: In 1970, a house in Fort Worth was $11,100 and the median income was $9,271. By 2022, the median income rose to $87,622 and a house was $250,300.

• In Dallas, the median income in 1970 was $10,019 and a house was $16,500. By 2022, income was $72,504 and a house was $270,700.

Reality check: Mortgage rates were in the double digits in the 1970s and 80s. Today they're hovering around 7%.

Zoom out: The largest affordability gaps are along the West Coast, with all five of the least affordable cities in California, per Axios' Rahul Mukherjee's analysis.

• The Midwest has remained the most affordable region for homebuyers.

The intrigue: Of the 117 cities included in the study, Detroit is the only one where buying is easier today than it was 50 years ago.

The bottom line: Younger generations are spending a larger portion of their income on housing, whether buying or renting.

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