Is the average monthly rent for an apartment in the Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs any cheaper than living in a Dallas neighborhood?
Rent.com ran the numbers and determined that suburban life is cheaper than city living. Rent.com looked at the past year’s rental rates for a studio, one-, two, and three-bedroom apartments. Rent.com is an Atlanta-based apartment search engine and online marketplace catering to Millennials.
Rent.com distills its data from listings on its site. In this data specific to D-FW suburbs, an unexplained statistical anomaly has Bedford studio residents paying more rent than their counterparts in Victory Park in downtown Dallas.
The data could be correct. Bedford is the meat in the Hurst-Euless-Bedford sandwich and benefits from the convergence of U.S. 121 and U.S. 183 and Pennington Field. But the Tarrant County city is not Victory Park, which features walking-distance amenities of the American Airlines Center, the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, and a vibrant dining scene.
Most affordable
- One-bedroom: Unlike Dallas proper, monthly rent for a one-bedroom in the suburbs doesn’t go for under a grand. According to Rent.com data, Arlington emerges as the cheapest at $1,067. Wylie and DeSoto 1BRs cost $1,095. Nine cities have rents that average less than $1,300.
- Two-bedroom: Mesquite edged Arlington for the most-affordable two-bedroom apartment. Mesquite’s rent averaged $1,354. Arlington was at $1,380.
- Three-bedroom: For more elbow room, DeSoto offers three-bedroom apartments for an average of $1,400 a month. Burleson ranks second at $1,450.
- Studio: Grapevine, with all its recreation, historic, and shopping amenities, offers the best average rent for a studio at $779. Richardson ($847), Mesquite ($923), and DeSoto ($925) represent the other sub-$1,000 cities.
Most expensive
- One-bedroom: Richardson is the most expensive with an average 1BR rent of $1,762. Frisco ($1,673), Grapevine ($1,657), and Plano ($1,621) are close behind.
- Two-bedroom: As you might expect, Frisco is the most-expensive 2BR at $2,342, but Grapevine is close behind at $2,339. Addison and Coppell ($2,159), Richardson ($2,144) and Plano ($2,048) are the cities above $2,000 a month.
- Three-bedroom: Frisco residents pay more for elbow room. Frisco averages $3,224 for a 3BR, the only city in the data that charges more than three grand.
- Studio: For some reason that can’t be determined from Rent.com’s data, Bedford represents the most expensive for a studio apartment at $2,160 a month. If the data is accurate, that means a Bedford studio is $140 a month less than a three-bedroom apartment. Bedford’s studio rate is more than Dallas proper’s Victory Park, which charges an average of $2,102. Irving ($1,800), Frisco ($1,674), and Addison ($1,667) — all surrounding technology sectors — charge an average of $1,600-plus a month for their studio dwellings.
Annual changes
- One-bedroom: Grand Prairie had a 50 percent increase in its year-over-year rent average and charged $1,427 a month. Grapevine was the closest at 44 percent over. Wylie (24 percent) and DeSoto (19 percent) were the only cities to register drops in rental average.
- Two-bedroom: Grapevine average rent jumped 67 percent on average year-over-year. DeSoto represented the only negative loss at minus-2 percent.
- Three-bedroom: Grapevine also had an increase, the largest in any dwelling size. 3BRs in Grapevine increased an average of 96 percent year-over-year. The closest was Mansfield, which jumped 82 percent. Meanwhile, Bedford experienced a 25 percent decline.
- Studio: Lewisville experienced a 72 percent annual increase. On the other end of the spectrum, McKinney studio rent fell 54 percent.
For comparison, Zumper also charts monthly rental trends. Zumper’s Dallas Metro Area Report ranks 14 cities to show the most and least expensive cities and cities with the fastest-growing rents. According to Zumper’s data, the Texas one-bedroom median rent was $1,099 in March.
Richardson had the highest rent at $1,550 a month for a 1BR. Frisco had the most-expensive 2BR rent at $2,000. Arlington had the least-expensive 1BR ($1,030) and 2BR ($1,370) rents.
Report review: This Rent.com rental-market trend report might be a general snapshot based on certain data, but it’s an interesting read. It’s an easy-to-read format without dropdown filters and fancy charts and graphs. FYI: Rent.com is owned by RentPath, which is also owned by Redfin. 🐇 🐇 🐇
