A report published by the National Low-Income Housing Coalition (NLIHC) surveyed rental housing prices across the United States and found that a minimum salary of over $53,000 was needed for Dallas residents to afford a one-bedroom apartment.
Each year the organization conducts a study called Out of Reach, which assesses the minimum financial requirements for housing in each state. NLIHC’s latest report found that the average cost of renting in the Dallas-Fort Worth area exceeds the average annual income.
Full-time workers in Dallas need to make on average $53,040 a year, or roughly $25.50 an hour at a full-time job, to afford a one-bedroom apartment, according to the study. Fort Worth had a slightly lower income needed for a one-bedroom apartment at $49,360, or roughly $23.73 an hour at a full-time job.
At the current federal minimum wage of $7.25, roughly 141 hours of work would be required weekly to afford a single-bedroom apartment in Dallas, while living in Fort Worth would require approximately 131 hours of work a week.
Both Dallas and Fort Worth require higher wages on average than the rest of the state. The Out of Reach report found that the average annual income needed to afford a one-bedroom apartment in Texas is $43,596.
Andrew Aurand, senior vice president for research at NLIHC, argued that housing is too expensive for low-income individuals.
“Rental housing is way too expensive and is not affordable for low wage workers really anywhere really in the country. When you think about urban areas [in Texas], there are, of course, some areas that are even more expensive,” claimed Aurand, speaking with KERA.
Aurand also said that although wages have increased in recent years, they have not kept up with price increases for housing. Since 2020, median rent rates in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex have increased by 25%.
“Wages have risen significantly over the last couple of years, especially for low-wage workers. But those increases, even though they’ve been significant, they have not kept up with the increases that we saw in rent,” Aurand told KERA. “And so even though low-wage workers … saw significant increase in their incomes, their increase in rent took more than that from them.”
Although wages have not kept up with housing costs, Adam Perdue, a research economist at the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, said he thinks housing prices will decrease by 2024.
“What we expected is a small drop [in prices] this year and just relatively flat for the next few years until everybody’s wages catch back up and adjust over time to a level that can sustain these prices,” Perdue said, per the Press-Republican. “Then we’ll see the normal price increase path after that.”