The Dallas-Fort Worth metro ranks as the top emerging real estate market across the United States and Canada, with the highest investment and development potential.
That’s according to the 2025 Emerging Trends in Real Estate report from the Urban Land Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The closely watched annual report compiles data from more than 2,000 industry experts who are surveyed to “highlight the most pressing topics shaping the commercial real estate landscape.”
DFW ranked as a top real estate market in part due to its healthy recovery from the pandemic, a diverse economic base and a growing population that supports continued real estate investment. The Metroplex last topped this list in 2019. It’s floated among the top few spots in the past three years and consistently ranked in the top 10 for the past six.
For its 46th edition, the report predicts the real estate market is on the cusp of the next cyclical upturn, as inflation begins to ease. That contrasts with last year’s theme, “The Great Reset,” suggesting the industry must establish new norms in a post-pandemic world and will require investors must envision a different future if they want to survive.
“The skies are finally clearing over commercial real estate markets, even if some dark clouds still linger,” the 2025 report says. “Industry people are more sanguine than a year ago, though also realistic. Better times are ahead, but the healing will take time.”
Overall, the report states that market recovery is projected to be slow and gradual. The Federal Reserve’s decision this summer to implement a half-percentage point rate cut contributed to this outlook change in the commercial real estate market.
“While challenges persist across the real estate sector, there are signs of improvement after years of hardship,” Andrew Alperstein, a partner with PwC’s U.S. real estate practice, said in a statement. He added that industry optimism has grown in the past year.
The Sun Belt continues to rank highly. The other top four markets were either in Texas or Florida. Miami ranked No. 2, followed by Houston and Tampa-St. Petersburg. More widely, the “Super Sun Belt” accounted for 13 of the top 20 markets this year.
Demographics are also a strong suit for greater Dallas. DFW is the most populous metro region in Texas and the fourth largest in the country, on track to replace Chicago as number three this decade.
Additionally, DFW is home to 23 Fortune 500 headquarters and is known for attracting businesses from a variety of sectors, including insurance, telecommunications, technology, energy, health care, and logistics.
“This combination of affordability, growth, and economic diversity should continue to attract new residents and businesses to DFW,” the ULI/PwC report says.
This favorable ranking comes on the heels of a JLL report that found zero major office groundbreakings across DFW in the third quarter, the first time that has happened in more than a decade. But Dallas is far from alone in this matter and a reduction in inventory could actually help leasing.
The report also noted favorable trends in major coastal markets. For example, New York climbed to No. 11, up from No. 31 last year.
This article was originally published by our content partners at the Dallas Business Journal. You can read the original article here.
