Dallas housing crisis: Rising rents outpace stagnant wages

Dallas renters face financial strain as wages lag behind soaring housing costs

West Dallas resident Eva Arreguin has family roots in the Oak Cliff neighborhood but, as the area's demographics have changed, the monthly expenses of residents like hers have become stretched.

The biggest bill? Rent.

Arreguin isn't alone.

The majority of Dallas residents - 58% - are renters, according to the 2025 rental housing needs assessment published by the Child Poverty Action Lab.

And half of all renters, no matter their income, are cost burdened which means they spend more than 30% of their income on rent. That 30% threshold is the federal standard used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development to ensure housing affordability and prevent households from becoming cost burdened.

Arreguin spends at minimum around $1,600 on rent, but with electricity, water, and other monthly fees that monthly rate can be close to $1,700.

She is the founding director of De Colores Collective, which works to highlight art and culture in underrepresented communities throughout Texas.

While her heart is in the Oak Cliff community, the rising cost of living has made her wrestle with whether to stay or move.

"So I think as someone who like, 'went to school and got a degree and did the right thing,' it doesn't matter, right?" Arreguin said. "Because the cost of living is so incredibly high, housing is unbelievable, and then we're not seeing anything at the federal level that wants to make it affordable for young people, or people in general, to afford housing."

Renting longer

Ashley Flores is Chief of Housing for the Child Poverty Action Lab. She said Dallas has seen a significant increase in high-income households, or those earning more than $100,000, moving in. However, a greater share of those households are more likely to rent than a decade ago.

Flores said 26% of high-income households rented in 2013; by 2023 that number increased to 38%. That's because of a higher cost of breaking into homeownership and an increase in property tax, interest rates, and insurance premiums.

"So higher income renters are remaining renters longer, which puts a downward pressure on the rental market," Flores said. "So that's part of the explanation for when you see new luxury apartments going up and you're wondering who is renting them, well a greater share of higher income households are renting today than they were 10 years ago."

Developers have tapped into that high-income renter market in Dallas, with some new build luxury apartments renting studio units from $1,600 to more than $2,000 a month in and around downtown.

But those new builds do not cater to some of the top occupations in Dallas: office and administrative support occupations, and food preparation and service workers.

Pocketbook pressure

The medium annual income for office and administrative workers in Dallas is around $46,000, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The target unit for that income - using the 30% HUD standard - would be in the $1,150 range.

Food preparation and service workers in Dallas average about $30,000 in annual income. A target unit for that income would be about $750 a month.

One-bedroom units at and under $750 a month do exist, but the majority are in far North Dallas or in the suburbs.

"It's not a guarantee that your budget is gonna feel some relief if you move further away to find a cheaper rental unit if you're then having to commute and pay increased transportation costs every day to and from work," Flores said.

The average gas price in Dallas as of April was around $3.65 a gallon, nearly a dollar more than last year.

At the same time, member cities with the Dallas Area Rapid Transit agency have tried to change its funding and governance model. Several cities called for elections to withdraw from DART - Addison, Highland Park and University Park are still holding elections.

Despite pushback from other member cities, Dallas signed a new agreement with DART this year that will give back $200 million in sales tax contributions to be used for transportation related projects.

Dallas City Council was briefed in April on the state of housing in Dallas and a $5 million sales tax shortfall for the current fiscal year.

Sales tax is one of the primary ways Dallas gets money to function, making up 24% of the city's revenue.

Council Member Gay Donnell Willis said during the briefing that about a third of Dallas employees live in the city, meaning their wages contribute to other cities.

Some major cities like New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia requires municipal employees to live in the city that employees them. This is prohibited in Texas by the state's local government code.

"But that's even more incentive to have affordable housing in the city of Dallas so that they can [live in the city], because we can't legally do it," Willis said.

But even people living in the city are spending less.

Uptown resident Jason Stanford has rented in Dallas since 2014. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Stanford lived in a two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment in Uptown for $1,650 a month. When rents increased, he moved to a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment for more than $1,700 a month.

Now, he lives in a studio apartment for $1,618 a month plus around $200 in monthly fees.

Stanford, who works in higher education, has a doctorate degree, a high credit score, and a perfect rental history. But, because he's saddled with massive student loans, he said it's hard to find a financing company that isn't scared off by the debt which makes home buying difficult.

So, he remains renting, paying more for less space than he had ten years ago. And that cost of living has impacted his monthly spending.

"I don't go and buy shoes anymore, I don't buy clothes like I used to," Stanford said. "I don't go out to socialize as much as I used to. I always come home because that's guaranteed, I'm here and I make sure that's paid for."

Affordability struggles

There are ways to find affordable units based on household income and the area median income, or AMI. The AMI for Dallas is about $70,000 according to the United States Census Bureau.

The Dallas Housing Finance Corporation and the Dallas Public Facility Corporation were created to generate more affordable housing in the city.

The Dallas Public Facility Corporation has an 'Income Eligibility Calculator' for residents to calculate which affordable units they qualify for based on income and household size.

Developers get a tax abatement in exchange for agreeing to hold half of their units as deed restricted or income restricted through these programs, Flores said.

"So they're getting a benefit from the city and in exchange they're reserving half of their units for renters earning at or below 80% AMI," Flores said.

More than 179,000 renter households in Dallas earn at or below 80% AMI, with the median wage for the lowest income renters at $13,910.

Evictions have more than doubled since the end of COVID-era rent relief and renter protections. Between 2019-2024, 83% of defendants in eviction cases appeared one time, Flores said, suggesting eviction is a one-time event for renters.

That tracks with what lawyers with the Dallas Eviction Advocacy Center have observed. Stuart Campbell, who runs the DEAC, said his team of nine lawyers represented tenants in Dallas County in 8,000 eviction trials last year.

"Almost everyone that we encounter is feeling shame or is feeling judged because they know that they should pay the rent, but they can't," Campbell said.

Last year they saw the highest eviction filings on record in Dallas County, Campbell said. A sudden job loss or emergency medical bill is all it can take to set a household back from making their rent payment.

Campbell said the city needs more affordable housing options for residents making between zero and 50% of the area median income.

"That's what we need," Campbell said. "But whether or not that's possible is a different question."